Mayor Glyn Lewers says he is disappointed with the Environment Court’s decision to rule in favour of AirBnB following a long fight by the council for more regulation of short-term rentals.

The company was quick to oppose Proposed District Plan (PDP) changes, initiated in 2017, which sought strict limitations on residential visitor accommodation to combat housing shortages and unaffordability.

An Environment Court decision, released on Monday (January 30) following mediation between the two parties, significantly waters down what Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) hoped to achieve.

“Council tried to significantly restrict the number of days houses could be used for residential visitor accommodation in a bid to improve the availability of housing for rent,” QLDC planning and development general manager Tony Avery said. 

“However, the outcome differs from what we initially proposed at the start of this process.”

Rejected changes included limiting the number of nights a whole home could be rented as short-stay accommodation to 28 days a year across three bookings.

Under the ruling, the number of permitted days for which residential visitor accommodation activity can operate will differ across various ‘zones’ within the district, from 42 nights in the Jacks Point Zone to 90 nights and even higher in other zones.

While AirBnB (a globally successful company which acts as a brokerage to connect travellers with homeowners willing to rent out their homes for short-term stays) has long been associated with reduced housing supply for permanent residents, Glyn said the court deemed there was not enough evidence under the Resource Management Act (RMA) to correlate housing issues with the supply of visitor accommodation.

The local council would continue to do what it could to help address housing issues, but more could be achieved at a national level, Glyn said.

“We will continue to work with national government and local stakeholders to achieve positive results for current and future residents of our district.”

All appeals have now been resolved, and the provisions in the District Plan are now considered operative.

PHOTO: Wānaka App