Why offer it for rent, what’s the incentive?

AFTER Bass Coast Shire issued an urgent plea for holiday homeowners to consider placing their property on the rental market, one ratepayer believes incentives should be offered to encourage uptake. 

Earlier this month, the shire issued the appeal to ratepayers with secondary residences or holiday homes as the rental crisis continues to deepen. 

The shire highlighted that as the region’s population has increased significantly, recent Census data showed during 2021 that almost 39 per cent of houses were unoccupied. 

They stated that the potential under-utilisation presented a housing opportunity. 

The Sentinel-Times spoke with a holiday homeowner, who’s property is located at Cape Paterson, as to whether or not they would consider it. 

The property owner, who wished to remain anonymous, said unless the shire offered incentives to encourage owners to put their property up as a rental, it didn’t seem worth it. 

“In my view, if they want to push for that then they have got to provide incentives for homeowners to do so,” the homeowner said. 

“What are those incentives? Well get rid of rates,” they remarked humorously. 

“Or get rid of land tax or provide a subsidy in rates.

“You can’t just ask people and there’s no incentive.

“Don’t forget you’ve got to do it on a permanent basis.”

When explaining the decision, the ratepayer said the family had worked to build the property for their private enjoyment, as it is not used as an Airbnb. 

“I’ve built that house, and by renting it out on a permanent basis, I forgo my privilege in using that house that I’ve dreamt of building and worked so hard on,” they said.

“I won’t have that opportunity once I rent it out.

“And the second issue, it’s fully furnished, so if I’m going to rent it out, I have to remove all that furniture and store it somewhere.”

The ratepayer also highlighted other issues if the property was to be tenanted, such as if they have pets or other needs.  

The Sentinel-Times contacted Mayor, Michael Whelan to ask if the shire was considering any incentives or ways to encourage secondary homeowners to take up the offer. 

Cr Whelan highlighted that it is extremely difficult, for example, to differentiate rates as an incentive, as the rates system is highly regulated. 

“Basically, we’re wanting people to understand the problem and the problem is that there’s a shortage of workers,” Cr Whelan said.

“Even if you can get workers, you’ve got to house them and there’s nothing around to rent.”

Cr Whelan highlighted that this issue also greatly affects holiday homeowners too, as many of their favourite venues when they visit are critically understaffed, as well as other vital services. 

“Its impact is across the board,” he said.

“It’s really about saying to people, look this is a community problem and we are asking them to think about whether they want to be part of the solution.

“We’re not putting any pressure on them.”

Cr Whelan added the shire is trying to find ways to alleviate the issue in any way they can, but it requires much more assistance from the state and federal governments. 

“It’s impacting people’s livelihoods, we need a solution,” he said.

“Our focus is saying to the community there’s a problem, and we want to make sure you know about it and the solution could be this and are you interested in helping us out.”