A Hobart landlord has applied to turn a row of six terrace houses into short-stay accommodation, but tenants say they were not aware that they may need to vacate until a permit notice was placed on their front fence.
Three of the properties have tenants – including a family with a young child – and a fourth was tenanted until January this year.
In her application for short-stay status, property owner Kim Woodcock told Hobart City Council that the tenants would be required to vacate at the end of their leases because the rent she set was "too high" for them, blaming land tax and interest rates.
However, Ms Woodcock told the ABC she only made the application to give herself "options" in case of future limits to new short-stay permits.
She said "nothing is definite" yet for her tenants.
The tenants now fear they will struggle to find somewhere else to live, with Hobart's rental vacancy rate at 0.7 per cent.
The heritage-listed circa-1915 houses are close to shops, schools and transport in North Hobart. Five are two-bedroom, and one is three-bedroom.
Pip Kennedy has lived there since January 2021, and said the short-stay application came as a "surprise".
"It is a bit scary to see that. And to sort of be unsure of what is going to happen in the future," she said.
"[I thought] that it would maybe affect one or two of the other flats but probably not my flat and, even if it would, maybe not for a couple of years.
"As someone who would maybe like to be here in a couple of years, even that was still a scary thought."
Another tenant told the ABC they had not been informed that they would need to vacate at the end of their lease.
Tenants also said they had not been offered the chance to pay additional rent to secure a new lease.
Ms Kennedy said it was frustrating that Tasmania lacked laws to prevent whole-of-dwelling short-stay conversions.
"I find it really disheartening that there's no legislation … to stop landlords from doing those conversions," she said.
"I know there's a young family who live here, a shift worker, people like that, so to see those people just not have homes so that there could be more Airbnbs that could potentially just sit empty … would be really upsetting.
"I understand that that's the world that we live in, but it still really sucks, because it's not the ideal world that I want to live in."
Rent rise cited in landlord application
In her application to council, Ms Woodcock said she planned to restore and renovate the houses to provide "a lovely experience for tourists, showcasing our beautiful heritage".
The proximity to sporting facilities, eateries and a cinema were listed as bonuses.
Ms Woodcock argued that she had to either raise rents or convert to short-stay.
"[Three of the houses] are currently tenanted but the tenants will be leaving when their leases expire due to rents being too high now as a result of land tax increasing by nearly 300 per cent and also the rising interest rates," she wrote.
Ms Woodcock, along with Robert Woodcock, bought five of the houses in 2001 for between $85,000 and $230,000 each, and added the sixth property in December for $750,000, with the short-stay application coming three months later.
In that time, the land value has increased from $20,000 per dwelling, to more than $360,000 each.
One of the dwellings sustained significant damage, caused by a former tenant, and has remained vacant since last year with repairs ongoing.
Ms Woodcock said this had taken a toll on her.
"I spent months of blood, sweat and tears cleaning and restoring the property. Not only was this physically and emotionally difficult, it was a significant financial burden," she said.
"Guests using the property as short-stay accommodation, if that's the route I choose to go down, would not cause the level of destruction inflicted by the previous tenant.
"I am a hard-working small business owner who has worked my whole life to purchase and maintain these properties. They are my superannuation."
Council told to amend scheme
There are 12 current applications with the City of Hobart for whole properties to be converted into accommodation.
A report last year by Peter Phibbs, from the University of Sydney found Hobart had a far higher Airbnb density than Sydney and Melbourne.
Since December 2020, the council has tried to find ways to stop entire homes from being converted to short-stay – but has been unable to do so under Tasmanian planning laws.
The City of Hobart received advice in December 2021 from then-planning minister Roger Jaensch, who said the council should amend its own planning scheme and try to get it through the Tasmanian Planning Commission (TPC).
But the council's own lawyers flagged problems with this advice in November 2022, and it was ultimately rejected by the TPC, sending the council back to square one.
The government's latest available quarterly data – which only covers up to June last year – shows there were 361 entire dwellings being used for short-stay in the City of Hobart.
The council has issued 124 permits for "change of use to visitor accommodation" since last July, 37 of which have been this year.
Permits are only required when an entire non-primary residence is converted.
Hobart councillor Mike Dutta — who chairs the council's housing and homelessness portfolio — said he was "shocked" by the North Hobart case.
He said the planning minister had the power to stop whole-of-dwelling short-stay if he wanted to.
"If the minister wanted to, I understand he has the power," he said.
"I would urge and call upon the minister to issue another directive that will hopefully stop these applications coming through where one owner can convert six terraces into Airbnb."
The City of Hobart is now considering whether to make another attempt with the TPC, and has renewed its call for Planning Minister Michael Ferguson to give council the power to restrict new short-stay permits.
The council's city life director, Neil Noye, said the council was "frustrated" at not being able to implement this policy.
Tenants' Union principal solicitor Ben Bartl said he had never come across a development like this.
Last month, Planning Minister Michael Ferguson blamed the council for its inability to restrict short-stay, as it had not signed up to the Tasmanian Planning Scheme yet.
He said the government did not support the policy regardless.
"The government does not believe that broader housing supply and affordability issues are matters that can, or should, be considered at the point of considering a single application for a change of use," Mr Ferguson said.
"The Hobart City Council should stop blocking development applications that would deliver more housing stock and therefore alleviate the current pressure on rentals."
