illegal serviced apartments
THE Transport and Tourism Forum, a hotel lobby group, has called for a national certification scheme to curb the proliferation of illegally operating serviced apartments.
The TTF estimates there are up to 2000 illegally operating serviced apartments in Sydney alone, and claims the problem is getting worse.
TTF national manager Peter Stavely said the property downturn meant many inner-city apartments were being let out for short-term accommodation, despite those buildings not being zoned for commercial use.
"The rise of the problem is a factor of softness in the residential market which means that individual owners or developers can't on-sell or lease their residential apartments," Mr Stavely said.
The AEA Grand building at 187 Kent Street in Sydney is one of those developments accused of illegally letting short-term accommodation.
The building is zoned strictly residential, but yesterday rooms in the tower were advertised on accommodation the website wotif.com.au citing nightly rates starting from $145.
Those advertisements were removed from the website following enquires by The Australian yesterday.
The top half of 187 Kent Street is comprised of strata-titled residential apartments.
The bottom half of the building operated as the Stamford Plaza Hotel until 2002, when it was zoned as residential.
The NSW Land and Environment Court allowed the rezoning on the condition the former hotel would not be used for the purpose of "serviced apartments ... serviced accommodation or the like".
Chairman of the owner's corporation for the top half of the building, Daniel Maurice, said apartments in the former hotel were being let out as serviced apartments, which affected long-term residents.
"When you have serviced apartments or hotel-like rooms operating in the middle of the residential strata it causes all types of problems," Mr Maurice said.
He said short-term residents were typically noisier and caused increased wear on communal fixtures such as the gymnasium and swimming pool.
The building's manager Con Kotis, of Australian Executive Apartments, said units in the lower half of the building were let out as "furnished apartments" rather than serviced apartments and as such were inside the law.
He said letting out apartments on such a short-term basis was legal if short-term residents were required to submit a residential tenancy agreement.
Mr Kotis said it was the "intention" of the building manager to require visitors to complete tenancy agreements.
"That's the intention, we have the management rights in the building but we don't manage all the leases," he said.
He would not disclose the minimum-stay requirements for the building.
Mr Kotis said the TTF was attempting to push "small players" out of the market.
TTF's Mr Stavely said under its proposal legal hotel and serviced-apartment operators would be "certified" to draw attention to illegal operators.
He said TTF would approach the federal Government to fund the proposal.
Mr Stavely said illegally operated serviced apartments disadvantaged legal operators as they faced lower fixed costs.
"We are seeing this problem in the Melbourne Docklands area, on the Gold Coast and to a lesser extent Brisbane," he said
The TTF estimates there are up to 2000 illegally operating serviced apartments in Sydney alone, and claims the problem is getting worse.
TTF national manager Peter Stavely said the property downturn meant many inner-city apartments were being let out for short-term accommodation, despite those buildings not being zoned for commercial use.
"The rise of the problem is a factor of softness in the residential market which means that individual owners or developers can't on-sell or lease their residential apartments," Mr Stavely said.
The AEA Grand building at 187 Kent Street in Sydney is one of those developments accused of illegally letting short-term accommodation.
The building is zoned strictly residential, but yesterday rooms in the tower were advertised on accommodation the website wotif.com.au citing nightly rates starting from $145.
Those advertisements were removed from the website following enquires by The Australian yesterday.
The top half of 187 Kent Street is comprised of strata-titled residential apartments.
The bottom half of the building operated as the Stamford Plaza Hotel until 2002, when it was zoned as residential.
The NSW Land and Environment Court allowed the rezoning on the condition the former hotel would not be used for the purpose of "serviced apartments ... serviced accommodation or the like".
Chairman of the owner's corporation for the top half of the building, Daniel Maurice, said apartments in the former hotel were being let out as serviced apartments, which affected long-term residents.
"When you have serviced apartments or hotel-like rooms operating in the middle of the residential strata it causes all types of problems," Mr Maurice said.
He said short-term residents were typically noisier and caused increased wear on communal fixtures such as the gymnasium and swimming pool.
The building's manager Con Kotis, of Australian Executive Apartments, said units in the lower half of the building were let out as "furnished apartments" rather than serviced apartments and as such were inside the law.
He said letting out apartments on such a short-term basis was legal if short-term residents were required to submit a residential tenancy agreement.
Mr Kotis said it was the "intention" of the building manager to require visitors to complete tenancy agreements.
"That's the intention, we have the management rights in the building but we don't manage all the leases," he said.
He would not disclose the minimum-stay requirements for the building.
Mr Kotis said the TTF was attempting to push "small players" out of the market.
TTF's Mr Stavely said under its proposal legal hotel and serviced-apartment operators would be "certified" to draw attention to illegal operators.
He said TTF would approach the federal Government to fund the proposal.
Mr Stavely said illegally operated serviced apartments disadvantaged legal operators as they faced lower fixed costs.
"We are seeing this problem in the Melbourne Docklands area, on the Gold Coast and to a lesser extent Brisbane," he said
posted by YG at 8:46 PM
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