This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
A COALITION of Byron Bay residents and business owners are challenging the Byron Shire Council’s proposal to cap short-stay home rentals to 90 days every year.
Byron Deserves Better spokesperson Sarah Workman said the group is challenging multiple false claims made by the Council in its bid to push the policy through.
“This council either doesn’t understand basic numbers or it’s deliberately misleading ratepayers, and I don’t know which is worse.
“The Mayor claims his policy will immediately return over 1,500 homes to the permanent rental pool. That’s impossible as there are only 1,136 homes on the NSW short term register in the Byron Bay area. Furthermore, the claim that these holiday homes will automatically come onto the rental market is false,” Workman said.
“We have picked this policy apart line by line and shown exactly how embarrassingly flawed it is, and we now invite our community to see for themselves before it’s too late.
“For too long the Mayor has been allowed to go unchallenged on factually incorrect statements. His proposal will do enormous damage to the Byron Shire’s economy,” she added.
Tourism Research Australia’s national and international visitor survey shows the 90-day cap would rip $267 million per annum from the local economy, threaten up to 1448 direct jobs, devastating local businesses across all sectors, and result in no positive impact on housing stock or affordability in the region.
“The Byron Shire Council and the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment even commissioned a report at a of cost of $109,000 to ratepayers which strongly recommended against the 90-day cap due to the inevitable, detrimental impact it would have on the community. The Mayor and the Bryon Shire Council have chosen to ignore their own report and push forward with this ill-conceived policy.
“Byron Shire Council opened its public consultation period on 1 September 2022, with Mayor Michael Lyon dismissing concerns on ABC Radio saying that those quoting economic damage from his policy are being “myopic”.
Workman said the Byron Deserves Better campaign was funded by the community including individuals, family owned business and other companies.
“The business community IS the community of Byron Shire. It’s vital we stand up and protect the future of the community and call out this deeply flawed, short-sighted policy.
“We live here. We work in local businesses, employing other members of our community. The Mayor is playing politics with our future and the worst thing is he won’t actually get the outcomes he is promising the community.” Workman said.
Norm Black started TripADeal in Byron Bay with his business partner Richard Johnston in 2011 which has become one of the biggest booking sites in Australia with Qantas acquiring a stake.
“Being one of the biggest employers in town, we have a clear perspective on this issue. We do not believe this Council proposal will have a positive effect on housing availability or affordability. What it will do is have an adverse impact on tourism which the town’s employment is built on. This is a knee jerk response. They won’t get the outcome they are seeking but they will do a lot of damage to Byron Bay,” Black said.
Grant Moffitt, who owns and manages several holiday cottages in the area, said short term accommodation is very important to the Byron market and visitor economy.
“Byron Bay is built off the back off a strong tourism economy. That industry is reliant on having a diverse mix of private short term accommodation options. If the Shire Council effectively wipes these out, they’re going to hurt a lot of businesses and put people out of work,” Moffit said.
Charlie Montano, who owns Footware Focus in Byron Bay, said he was very concerned about the impact on retail small businesses.
“The retail economy in Byron needs tourists. It’s very simple – when you are on holiday, you spend more. If Council takes away short term rentals, tourism drops and retail suffers. This cannot be offset or avoided in a town like Byron Bay where tourism is everything,” Montano said.
Byron Bay Holiday Hire is a local family business established in the 1990s providing linen and essential holiday hire items to accommodation providers and tourists across the region from Ballina to New Brighton.
Reid Campbell and his family are worried not only for their family business, but the jobs of their staff.
“If Byron Shire Council goes through with this, it will be absolutely devastating to the region. There are a lot of jobs linked to accommodation providers and their visitors. Council needs to re-think this before it’s too late,” Campbell said.
Workman said any community representative showing common sense would scrap this process and start again.
“The starting point must be based on the truth and facts.
“We’re encouraging everyone to stand up against the Mayor and his Council by visiting www.ByronDeservesBetter.com to fully understand what is going to happen here and to have your say before it’s too late.
“Every submission we receive before the closure date of 31 October 2022 will be sent directly to our Shire Councillors so they can see just how much damage this will cause.”
