ABSTRACT
In Chapter 4, the authors turn to Australia, Airbnb’s “most penetrated market.” Like the US, Australia is a nation of homeowners with a highly financialized housing system. Relatively unscathed by the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), an investor-driven building boom in Melbourne and Sydney made for a surplus of vacant central city apartments and an open house for Airbnb and short-term rentals (STRs). Focusing on Airbnb’s trajectory in these two major cities, they find that local authorities and residents have been less concerned about rising rents then the loss of amenities. Although these cities eventually turned to regulation, their regulatory efforts have primarily taken the form of codes of conduct that address behavioral issues and have been mild, leaving enforcement to residents and their housing associations. As of spring 2020, the regulatory laws in New South Wales (Sydney) remain to be implemented.
