In one instance, she said she had secured a rental in the Adelaide Hills, but then her landlord sold the property and the new owner transformed it into a short-stay offering.
“There have been a few places like that,” she said.
“That owner that I had the rental lease with sold the property to another owner, who changed it to an Airbnb, so I had to go.”
Rebecca has struggled to secure a stable long-term rental for years. Photo / Supplied
Now, she’s paying cash to rent a room in the Adelaide beachside suburb of Glenelg.
“It’s strictly cash. These people [the landlords] don’t want anybody to know,” she said.
“It just causes so much disruption and it’s expensive having to move every time, it’s expensive having to run around looking for new rentals.
“The stress it causes when your home does not feel secure, or you know your home is possibly going to be whacked out from under you at any minute, it just makes it terribly hard to ever really relax.”
Advocacy group Everybody’s Home says Rebecca’s story demonstrates that negative gearing tax concessions have distorted the housing market.
Negative gearing allows property investors to offset losses in property against their taxable income.
The measure is designed to incentivise housing supply, but Everybody’s Home spokeswoman Maiy Azize said the incentive should not go towards short-stays like Airbnbs and Stayz.
“Everyday people are footing the bill for property investors to write off losses from holiday homes, all while families are being priced out of their communities because they can’t find affordable rentals.
“Renters across the country are being squeezed by soaring rents and a shrinking number of affordable homes – and in many parts of the country, short-stay accommodation is only making it worse.
“Generous tax breaks for investors, including for short-stay accommodation, are driving wealth inequality and pushing up house prices for everyone else.”
In a new report, the group argues negative gearing is rewarding speculative investment in short-stay housing over the supply of long-term rentals, particularly in regional and tourist areas.
“The rise in short-stay accommodation has led to reduced rental supply, higher rents and displacement of local workers and families,” the report states.
“Yet the tax system treats these short-term holiday lets as though they were long-term rental housing and rewards them accordingly.”
Everybody’s Home argues negative gearing tax concessions worsen the housing crisis by favouring short-stays.
The University of Queensland research shows there are more than 167,000 “entire homes” listed as short-term rental accommodation.
Modelling from Everybody’s Home shows eliminating negative gearing for these short-term rentals could return between $111m and $556m each year to the Treasury, depending on the percentage level of negatively geared properties.
Everybody’s Home wants the federal Government to amend the Income Tax Assessment Act to ensure properties “primarily used for short-stay accommodation” are not eligible for negative gearing deductions.
Longer term, the group wants negative gearing abolished on all investment properties.
Anthony Albanese, however, has ruled out changes to negative gearing.
“I told people we wouldn’t make changes, the proof is in the pudding,” the Prime Minister told Sky News during the 2025 election campaign.
“If we were going to make changes, then why haven’t we?
“The key to housing is supply, supply and more supply.”
Housing Minister Clare O’Neil, speaking this month, said the Government would allocate $43 billion to boost supply and also cut red tape in construction by pausing and streamlining the National Construction Code.
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