Supporting communities  |  11 Dec 2019

Christchurch City Council will begin engaging with the public in January on options for managing home share accommodation in Christchurch and Banks Peninsula.

The Urban Development and Transport Committee today gave Council staff approval to seek comments from the community and other stakeholders on ways that the District Plan could be used to manage effects from home share accommodation.

“We want to get initial feedback from the community about whether they believe there is a need to manage home-share accommodation and how they would like us to approach the issue,’’ says Urban Development and Transport Committee Chair Councillor Mike Davidson.

The District Plan change options that are being explored are not aimed at people who rent out a spare room in their house. They are aimed at those who rent out entire properties in residential or rural zones while they are not present.

Under current District Plan rules, property owners in most residential zones are only permitted to rent out entire properties as accommodation if they have a resource consent.

There are some exceptions in specific areas where guest accommodation is already permitted and for small units in the Residential Central City zone. In rural zones, whole properties can only be rented out without resource consent if they are part of a farm stay or associated with a rural tourism activity.

However, there are a number of current listings that do not comply with the rules and it is difficult to police because there is no register of home-share accommodation providers.

The Council is now considering and seeking feedback on whether it should:

  • Maintain the current rules (restricting whole home listings in residential and rural zones).
  • Enable whole home listings in residential and rural zones for only a specified number of days a year.
  • Enable whole home listings in some areas but not others (for example, not allowing them in residential zones within the central city where there is currently a high number of home-shares compared to permanent residences).
  • Enable whole listings that meet specific criteria (for example, they have adequate parking and are not a multi-unit dwelling).
  • Enable whole home listings everywhere.

The Council will also be seeking feedback on other mechanisms that could help manage home-share accommodation.

Information on where and how to provide comments will be available on the Council’s Have Your Say webpage and in local libraries and service centres when the public comment period begins.