On 20th September 2023, the then Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, announced the introduction of a 7.5% levy which will be applied to income earned from short-stay accommodation including Airbnb and Stayz.
It is expected that the short-stay accommodation levy will support the government in delivering more and better social and affordable housing in addressing the current rental crisis in Victoria. Interestingly the statistics say that there are over 36,000 short-stay accommodation places in Victoria with 29,000 of those entire homes which the government assert are places that cannot be used for longer term accommodation and therefore they should provide some benefit toward the places that can. Of the total places under short-stay accommodation almost half of these are in regional Victoria. Airbnb have said it has brought tourists to regions undersupplied by traditional hotels and are reshaping travel & tourism away from cities and towards more rural communities.
The Victoria government will need to set up a single register of all short-stay properties to ensure they are caught under the levy and not just those listed on a digital platform such as Airbnb and Stayz.
Further details of exactly how the levy will be charged and the timing of when payments will be required will come out in time with the Levy set to begin on 1st January, 2025.
