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Brisbane City Council announced it would hike rates for whole properties listed on Airbnb-style platforms for more than 60 days a year in June,and was initially vague on how it would enforce the measure.Credit:Matt Dennien,Supplied

The decision,which will see services from the firm start this month,comes as the state government announced details from itspreviously flagged review of the sector were expected to arrive this year to drive its own regulatory approach.

Now,10 years since the global short-stay rental platform launched in Australia,governments around the country are only recently moving to try toregulate the sector or understand its effect on housing availability and affordability.

The country’s largest local governmentannounced its effort in June,with 50 per cent rates hike for whole properties listed on such platforms for more than 60 days each year. It was initially vague on how it would enforce the measure.

This month,Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner urged residents todob in neighbours (complaints have previouslyfar outweighed approvals) while Labor’s council opposition and social service groups havequestioned the benefits.

The council will now have access to Deckard’s platform,called rentalscape,which analyses public data from major platforms such as Airbnb and Stayz,real estate listings and property records to pinpoint and track those being rented out.

This ability allows governments to make regulatory decisions,promote compliance with rules and enforce them by drilling down on specific properties,the company’s website states.

Deckard was founded in 2018 by a group of four Australians,including former Qualcomm senior executive Greg Rose,with a Sydney-based engineering team comprising many other former staffers of theglobal tech giant.

However,the delay in action and smaller scale of Australian jurisdictions led the company to focus its efforts on the United States,where it now works with almost 100 local governments.

Dr Thomas Sigler,University of Queensland urban and economic geography associate professor,said short-term rental numbers in Australia had dropped to nearly half their pre-pandemic peak,to about 266,000 as of July.

According to data provider AirDNA,some 51,000 of these are in Queensland,representing about 2-3 per cent of the total housing stock — slightly lower than the national portion. This is lower again in Brisbane.

Sigler put the lag in regulation across the country down to a “wait and see” approach by governments holding out for a trigger to move or empirical evidence of the effect on housing markets — which still largely does not exist.

“There’s finally a catalyst,” he said,referring to therecord high vacancy rates,rent increases andsocial housing shortfalls thattriggered the state government’s summit set down for Thursday.

“The big thing we’re observing is the professionalisation of these platforms. We’re going from the sharing economy to the platform economy.“

While the NSW government requires platforms to share data under its owncap on short-stay rentals in some areas,no such arrangement is in place in Brisbane.

Airbnb’s Australia and New Zealand manager,Susan Wheeldon,welcomed the Queensland review and the ability to contribute to any reforms,calling for a statewide approach with registration schemes,visitor levies and codes of conduct for hosts and guests.

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