‘A lot of money at stake’: investors irate as Byron council pushes to cap short-term rentals like Airbnb

Byron Bay locals are increasingly being driven out of homes and out of the shire as the seaside town becomes overcrowded and overpriced and short-term rentals such as Airbnb proliferate. Photograph: Kiara Bloom/Getty Images/iStockphoto

And so it begins. The legendary Byron Bay summer. The beautiful people coming out to play. The drum circles in the streets. The dolphins riding the waves with the surfers at Wategos. The town heaving at night. The traffic jammed for miles. The house parties in the lush rolling hills.

Amid all the idyllic glamour and celebrity, the traumatised homeless emerging from cars, vans, tents and sand dunes into the sun-splashed mornings to try to charge a phone or have a shower. They are elderly women, single mothers and working families who can’t find an affordable place to live. Or any place to live.