Thursday, 14 November 2024

Short-stay accommodation

Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:43): (1293) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Consumer Affairs, and the action that I seek is for the Labor government to ensure that professional Airbnb management companies like MadeComfy are not able to operate in the newly announced activity hubs. A building with 15 spacious one-bedroom apartments in Parkville was full of renters paying $280 a week only two years ago. Now the entire building is run as an Airbnb. These homes are right across from Royal Park, near public transport, hospitals, schools and the University of Melbourne – perfect for young people. The building was sold in 2022, and at the time 14 out of the 15 homes were tenanted. Now just two years later a fence has been erected with a sign saying ‘Fully furnished short-term rental properties managed by MadeComfy’, with the apartments now being listed for $895 a week. Let me repeat: these homes were $280 a week only two years ago and they are now $895 a week.

MadeComfy is a professional Airbnb management service dedicated to helping Airbnb owners ‘earn higher returns’. They are essentially a real estate company but for Airbnbs. Of course they love to brag about how much more money they make through Airbnb as opposed to long-term rentals. Airbnb owners and Airbnb management companies like MadeComfy are raking it in and expanding their portfolios, buying up whole buildings whilst people are struggling to find homes in this housing crisis. Brand new apartment buildings are set to go up in these newly announced activity hubs – I am seeing them all over Melbourne – and there are no plans to stop these new buildings being converted entirely into Airbnbs. Labor claims that these homes will be for young people, but it is not doing anything to ensure these homes will be available and affordable to young people. How can young Victorians ever hope to have an affordable home when those homes that were affordable have had their prices jacked up by these big companies running short-term rentals?