Short-stay Street: in some parts of Sydney, Airbnb guests outnumber residents

Councillors are pushing for a ban on short-term rentals, particularly in inner-city suburbs – where vacancy rates can be as low as 1%

At 10am on High Street in Millers Point, it’s checkout time. Departing guests have left laundry bags on their verandas for cleaners, who have laid out fresh towels on beds in neighbouring rooms. Other guests are heading out sightseeing in “I love Sydney” T-shirts.

Although it boasts enviable harbour views, this is not a tourist resort. It’s a street of Federation-era houses – formerly some of the oldest public housing in Australia – overtaken by short-term rentals, many of them managed through Airbnb.