

NSW State Government Prioritises Tourism Over Home Owners’ Rights
The State Government’s Destination NSW CEO Sandra Chipchase writes today: “Destination NSW works in partnership with a range of tourism and travel trade partners to fulfil its principal objective…which is to achieve economic and social benefits for the people of NSW through the development of tourism and securing major events…Destination NSW does not carry out regulatory functions, therefore the questions…regarding compliance with legislation, regulations and other activitie


AIRBNB'S NEXT BIG THRUST: 15% OF THEIR CLIENTS ONLY WANT A 'NOONER'
Remember the State Government’s eviction of Public Housing Tenants and the 'Save Millers Point' rallies? The last of the Residents has gone and this week a further 11 Millers Point homes have been “on-boarded” to the Airbnb platform by HomeHost Management Group. Meanwhile many short-term rental landlords are uneasy about the repeated emails from Airbnb’s HQ in San Francisco (see photo) asking that Minimum Night Settings be updated as “15% of clients in (their) area are book


A "SMELLY" SITUATION HAS AIRBNB SUPERHOSTS "STRESSED"
An ABC report has Darlinghurst Resident and Airbnb landlord Diane Green claiming that noisy sewer works have “the potential to kill her Airbnb business”. If she cancels her listings she may ‘lose her Superhost status’. Ms Green: “I’m getting very stressed.” In July 2018 “War widow Diane Green”told AltMedia that she and 20 other owners in the 76-apartment building, ‘Top of the Town’in Darlinghurst’s Victoria Street, “receive bookings at their retirement “nest-egg” units”. N


Update Report – January 2019 Addressing New South Wales’ Housing Crisis
Could Airbnb Be Turning Our Most Affordable Rental Housing Stock Into Ghost Hotels and Serviced Apartments? NSW Premier Berejiklian states that she does not see our correspondence and instructed Parliamentary Hearing Committee Chairman into short-term rentals, Mark Coure MP, to schedule a meeting with representatives of Neighbours Not Strangers. At a meeting held yesterday our ‘Update Report – January 2019’ was presented. Inside Airbnb provided the statistics in our Report.


WHO’S SLEEPING WHERE? LONG-TERM v SHORT-TERM v HOMELESS
At the last ‘street count’ undertaken by the Council of the City of Sydney, 278 individuals were sleeping rough and a further 495 residents were occupying beds in temporary shelters and homelessness hostels. People in boarding houses or with friends or those living in other forms of non-secure housing weren’t counted. The next count is overnight on 18/19 February. Yet for those whose desire is to ‘live like a local’, Airbnb currently has 9,241 homes available in the Sydney


HEY AIRBNB, IS JEB A PROPERTY MANAGER OR…?
One needs simply Google ‘Airbnb money laundering’ and all sorts of interesting things pop up on screen. Even Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafortwas indicted for money laundering that included a property listed on Airbnb. So let’s just say we’ve been watching at a distance a Sydney Airbnb property for some two years now. We’ve had coffee with the Resident Owner, who confirms the Airbnb listing most definitely isn’t theirs. Enter Airbnb ‘super host’ / aka prop


SHORT-TERM RENTALS: WHO’S THE BULLY?
We are concerned about homes and an individual’s fundamental right to safe, secure housing, plus the rights of those who have complied with legislation and run accredited Small Businesses. Compare this to the unavoidable fact that nowadays the vast majority of those running commercial hotel/serviced apartment operations in residential dwellings are doing so without any regard to building certification requirements including disability access, without contributing by way of c


NSW LEGISLATION: WHO GIVES A TOSS? NOT FAIR TRADING
In NSW there is specific legislation dealing with unlicensed trading by a corporation and individuals. This falls under Fair Trading and covers real estate agents, stock and station agents, business agents, strata/community managing agents and on-site residential property managers. The Property, Stock and Business Agents Act 2002 sets out the Rules of Conduct and Discipline. Monetary penalties (should) apply for non-compliance with this Act. One noted anomaly: “One does