Ever walked around the city and noticed a fence or pole absolutely covered in key lockboxes?
Whether you see them everywhere or barely notice them, Sydney Greens Councillors Matthew Thompson and Sylvie Ellsmore believe it’s a major issue. For both of them, the rapid growth of Airbnb is making Sydney’s housing crisis even worse.
Posting on his Instagram page, Thompson stated:
With the proliferation of AirBNB across Sydney, lockboxes have increasingly appeared on our streets and public spaces, obstructing accessibility, compromising safety, and causing damage to council infrastructure (and even trees!).
According to him, this is about to end—the City of Sydney is set to start removing these lockboxes from public spaces starting April next year.
Do you agree with the move? Can a few lockboxes really get in the way of foot traffic or cause that much trouble?
Look, I’m not so sure about the lockboxes themselves, but the sheer number of homes being turned into Airbnbs definitely shares part of the blame for Australia's rental crisis.
The proof lies in what happened during the pandemic.
When borders closed and tourism completely dried up in 2020 and 2021, Airbnb hosts were left with zero guests. Thousands of property owners had no choice but to move their listings back to the long-term rental market. Research showed that Airbnb listings dropped by around 20%—roughly 40,000 properties—between February and May 2020 alone.
With all those homes flooding back into the market, the supply of traditional rentals shot up in central areas like the Sydney and Melbourne CBDs, and rental prices dropped significantly.
So, while the link between short-term rentals and housing supply is clear, one big question remains: will banning key lockboxes actually help lower rental prices, or is it simply tackling the symptom instead of the problem?
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