Both Brisbane City Council and Gold Coast City Council have approved significant rate rises for 2022-2023. Additionally, Brisbane City Council has also announced higher rates for people who lease their residential properties on short-term accommodation platforms like Airbnb.
Brisbane
Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner announced the council budget would include an average rates hike of 4.93 per cent, the highest hike since 2008 as the city grappled with the combined effects of COVID-19 and recent floods.
The new rate rise will cost Brisbane residents, on average, an extra $85 a year, but different suburbs will be hit differently according to state land valuations.
Lake Manchester in Brisbane’s north-western had the biggest rate increase at 7.3 per cent while residents of bayside Lota would face the smallest increase at 1.49 per cent.
Flood-hit suburbs such as Riverhills (3.81 per cent), Chelmer (3.73 per cent), West End (3.85 per cent) and Jindalee (3.49per cent) were earmarked for the among the smallest rate rises.
Click here to see the Average Brisbane City Council rate rises by suburb.
More than 253,000 owner-occupied ratepayers will continue to receive a $60 rates discount for paying on time and more than 41,000 pensioners receive a pensioner rebate.
Mr Schrinner said the budget was “sensible and affordable” with a rate rise below Brisbane’s inflation rate of 6 per cent.
Airbnb
Mr Schrinner announced, “significantly higher rates” on landlords who have “turned homes into mini hotels,” in a bold bid to tackle a shortage of Brisbane rental homes.
Those leasing their residential properties via platforms like Airbnb will see rates increase by 50 per cent in a bid to create more properties within the swollen rental market.
Properties leased for less than 60 days a year will be excluded from the hike, dubbed the transitory accommodation rating category, while owners who rent for more will pay a 50 per cent surcharge on their rates bill.
For those owners who will continue to list their properties as short-term stays, a new “transitory accommodation” rates category will come into effect from July 1.
Gold Coast
The Gold Coast City Council has approved an 4.3 per cent rates increase for 2022-23. It’s the largest rate hike in a decade but is still below the current rate of inflation.
It says it will equate to an extra $3.11 a week – or just over $160 a year – for ratepayers.
Water services and charges will also rise by 3 per cent for the average household.
Airbnb
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate has ruled out following Brisbane’s move to introduce a 50 per cent rates premium for holiday rental properties saying the move would “spook” investors and threaten the city’s tourism economy.
