Nathaniel Herz Jardine: Christchurch city councillor on the council calling for a pushback on Airbnb

Hotel developments are quietly disappearing and 'ghost communities' are on the rise as Christchurch's council has raised concerns over Airbnbs.

Four motel and hotel operators urged elected members at a policy and planning committee meeting to support a mandatory registration system for short term accommodation providers.

Councillor Nathaniel Herz Jardine wants Christchurch to take charge in rallying other councils to demand change. 

"All we ask for is...we need the data. It's not saying we want to ban them, it's not saying anything like that. It's just saying, at the moment, we're in this crazy situation where we're hiring compliance officers - they have to do stake outs and surfing online and fielding complaints about who's renting out what."  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now there is another push against Airbnb coming from christ Church.
One of the city councilors is warning that Airbnb is
turning bits of the city into ghost communities, and that
for every nine new homes built in christ Church last year,
the city only gained one new resident. That counselor is
Nathaniel Hertz Jardine, who is with us now hig in Nathaniel, Hi,
are they hay done? I'm very well, thank you? So,

(00:20):
I mean, how sure of you of the fact you
only got one resident for every nine new houses? That
seems quite extraordinary.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
That's the inner city, to be clear, that's just that
inner four AVS area, and that's the data we've got
on increased residents versus increased finished buildings.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Okay, but not all of the remaining I mean, let's
say that one resident per property and there for the
other eight are empty. But they're not all Airbnb, right,
Some of them are just unsold, aren't they.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well, they could be. But if you look at if
you walk around those areas around by the stadium, and
if you talk to residents, it's pretty clear that we've
got a majority Airbnb's. I mean, a group came into
council the other day, there are four families living in
a block of twenty five units and they know for
sure the other twenty one are all airbnbs.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Oh really? And is this people who are airbmbing them
out and the hope that the that the new stadium
will attract business for them.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yeah, that's a big part of it. And this is
a trend we see worldwide is that when you have
big events, and of course for christ it's a big
part of our strategies. The city is major events. Major events,
you've see a big increase in that short stay accommodation,
whether it's airbnbbooking, dot com, whatever, and after the event goes,
they actually stay as short stay. So it has this
permanent effect on the inner city.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Okay, what would you like to do about this?

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, so all we asked for as council unanimously yesterday
was just that we need the data. That was really
it's not saying we want to ban them, it's not
saying anything like that. It's just saying that at the moment,
we're in this crazy situation where we're hiring compliance offices,
they have to do things like you know, stakeouts and
surfing online and fielding complaints because all the data about

(01:52):
who's renting out what we're that's on the Airbnb service,
we're not allowed to access that.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
But why have you got complaint of have you got
rules about airbs?

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah? Well, the only really important thing that we have
is that if you if you've got an unhosted short
stay accommodation, so an Airbnb where no one lives there
and you're renting it out for more than sixty days
a year, we say, well, you're basically a business, so
you should be on a level playing field with things
like hotels.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
So is that why you have officers?

Speaker 2 (02:21):
That's part of why. Yeah, So we require those airbnbs
to pay business rates, which is about double your standard rates,
and that pays for things like event promotion. You know,
some of that money goes towards, you know, attracting Robert Williams,
building the stadium, that sort of stuff. And we know
that only a tiny proportion, less than ten percent of
the short stay accommodation are actually paying the taxes that

(02:43):
they should be. So that's why we have to have
these compliance offices.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
I see. Okay, so you want the data from government
in order to be able to say that is an airbnb.
Is that essentially what it is?

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, yeah, that's all. That's really all we need at
the moment.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
And then what just and then what you Then then,
because it's an air BnB, you charge it a commercial
rate rather than a residential rate.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, it's like that. So that's how it works. In
the European Union's the platforms like a but they give
us that they give the data straight to the local councils.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
But now then we get government giving it to you.
Because this is just a straight data swap that would help.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
I would love you to ask some of this the
central government and p's that same question other because I
don't know, it's obvious.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Have you not asked them?

Speaker 2 (03:25):
So they've been asked many times already, so l G
ANDZ Local Government New Zealand they have asked previously. Hospitality
in New Zealand have asked. There have been open letters
all over the place calling for this, and this is
just what I'm trying to do is spark another round.
Now it's an election year, Pile on the pressure, get
other councils involved and just say please, we just need
the data so we can make good policy decisions, whatever

(03:47):
those decisions are.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
You know, okay, Nathaniel, that seems fair enough. Who's there?

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Simon Watsuitsan the Minister. I think we'll ask them next time.
Nathaniel hurts chardin christ Shoot City councilor For more from
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