From Barcelona, to Berlin, to New York, tourist hotspots globally are banning or restricting the use of short term accommodation, like AirBnB, in a bid to free up housing stock.
Now it's an idea Sydney is investigating.
"There's about 5000 AirBnBs we think, on a conservative estimate, in the City of Sydney, that could be someone's home", greens councillor Matthew Thompson told 1News.
"They're sitting empty for a lot of the year."
Thompson is one of the greens councillors who put forward the proposal - which has been unanimously backed and is now being reviewed by City of Sydney council staff ahead of a public consultation period.
There is currently a 180 day cap but some, including Thompson, argue poor oversight of the industry means many are sidestepping this restriction.
"We're in the middle of a housing crisis and people can't find homes. people are literally homeless", he said.
Queenstown is facing a similar dilemma, according to mayor John Glover.
"On any particular night of the year a third of our properties are empty. so do we have a housing shortage? maybe not, do we use them efficiently? no."
A council bid to restrict the number of days houses could be used for short term visitor accommodation was turned down by the Environment Court in 2023.
So the Council's commissioned Auckland University to investigate the scale of short term letting across the district.
"The Environment Court said you haven't shown cause and effect," Glover told 1News. "So that's hopefully what this latest report will address."
There are some control measures already in place, including higher rates, but the mayor says it's difficult to monitor and wants stronger regulation from the Government.
"If AirBnB are required to give our council the addresses of all the places on their platform, then that means at least we can follow up and make sure they've got the right permissions and they're paying the right amount."
In a statement Housing Minister Chris Bishop told 1News: "We don’t have a problem with a shortage of land for housing in New Zealand, but we do have a problem with allowing housing to be built."
"Proposed changes to short-term letting are a symptom of the underlying problem. We are focused on fixing the fundamentals to enable more homes to be built.”
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