Emeka Ndaguba, Kerry Brown, Uma Jogulu and Dora Marinova
Policy and administrative inventiveness for regulating business-to-individual relationship is incongruent. Government legislations and local government administrative laws for business-to-individual relationships in the short-term rental arrangement generates two kinds of laws: location-based and density-based, which tend to create confusion and inconvenience for both the owners, investors and guests. This paper assesses the role of administrative personnel of the local government and the regulation initiatives implementable in the governance of the short-term rental sector in Australia. We utilise text, content, and document analysis to gather data to create contexts and produce insights. Our result established a differential in states and local governments laws on short-term rentals in Australia, and these laws may affect the local and international property investors and management firms, and may create a lacuna in local economic development, by reducing guest stay in some local governments, while other may witness deficit in housing investment for short-stay accommodation. We further established that regulatory fluctuation creates misunderstanding for consumer’s booking intention, accommodation platforms, and travel and sales apathy. Also, an inconsistency in administrative law may prevents buyers from comparing housing market indices. Thus, there is a need for smart regulatory framework, which unlocks and stimulates economic regeneration, and build scalable public value and sustainable finance for majority of its users.