Entrepreneurs are running networks of sublet apartments on accommodation-sharing website Airbnb, allowing tenants to offset their rental costs - and yielding a return potentially double what the properties' owners can earn.
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A Fairfax Media survey of local listings on Airbnb reveals about a dozen operators running multiple listings of apartments. In some cases, these operators manage their network as a business, renting each room in the apartment separately, employing cleaning firms to look after the mess and taking a cut of the profit.
One user, with 20 listings on the website for rooms in four apartments, who would speak to Fairfax only on condition of anonymity, has put together a portfolio of acquaintances' apartments, which he manages on their behalf via Airbnb. To maximise profits, he lists each bedroom for rent separately and employs friends to work as cleaners.
All those whose apartments he lists are tenants. Subletting on Airbnb allows them to keep up with their rent.
The activity highlights the regulatory grey area in which the booming sharing economy operates.
Subletting a house on Airbnb is legal, if you have the "written consent" of your landlord, Victoria's Consumer Affairs Department says. However, the Tenants Union of Victoria says landlords are required to give consent to reasonable subletting requests, meaning the subletting operates in a legal grey area.
On average, Airbnb listings in Melbourne go for $135 a night – cheaper than a hotel, but much more expensive than a comparable rental property. A professionally leased and managed apartment on Airbnb can return up to 14 per cent rental yield, twice what an investor might expect on the traditional rental market, the user said – "but there's obviously risk [of eviction or prosecution]".
"People are getting poorer now, so they have to make the most of any empty rooms lying around. Try to save money anywhere they can," he said.
"Most of the people who are hosting don't actually own the apartments. It's just poor people, probably like 80 per cent. People are renting places they can't afford."
Speaking by phone, the user sounded resigned about the future of Airbnb.
"There are a lot of old ladies doing this. They think it's like super legal and it's going to last forever, but I don't think so. I think Airbnb has a lot of haters – hotels are big business.
"It's exactly like Uber – people want to take down Uber. Uber and Airbnb are for the poor people."
Lobby groups are clamouring for the government to regulate the area and give body corporates in apartment blocks the power to stop short-stay rentals.
"Airbnb has gone from sort of a smaller cottage industry into some people making their main living," Accommodation Association of Australia chief executive Richard Munro said.
Airbnb was able to offer lower prices for rooms than traditional hotels because it had lower compliance and regulatory costs, Mr Munro said.
In the long term, that could potentially push hotels and motels out of business, leading to job losses, he said.
Meanwhile, owners corporations are fighting for the right to lock Airbnb out of their buildings for good.
Rob Beck, general manager of Strata Community Victoria, called for owners corporations to be given the power, via legislation, to impose minimum rental terms for apartments in their buildings.
"The current situation is untenable. You've got a huge amount of angst out there," Mr Beck said.
The government has been slow to respond, but it is moving. A panel with industry representatives has been convened to look at the issue and will make recommendations to the government.
An Airbnb spokeswoman said the company was working with regulators to get them to draft rental laws that took its operations into account.
"We encourage our hosts to familiarise themselves with local regulations and these differ from council to council and even street to street, all over the world.
"But what we consistently hear from hosts, and even councils, is that many of the laws are outdated and difficult to interpret because they were written long ago, before anyone could imagine something as incredible as Airbnb.
"That's why we've been talking with policy makers about the need for clear, progressive and fair laws that allow for home sharing."
True size
Airbnb's true size has been the subject of much speculation by lobby groups for some time but an investigation by Fairfax Media reveals the scale of the booming sharing economy.
There are almost 1500 apartments and houses in Melbourne's inner suburbs listed on Airbnb's Australian website, 180 alone in Southbank, 190 in the central business district and 27 in Docklands. Further out, there are 171 listings in St Kilda, and 104 in Fitzroy. Of the 1500 listings, about 1100 are apartments.
Overall, the company says, it has more than 8000 listings across the state, double the number from 2014 – and it predicts it will double again in 2016.
