11/03/2026 By RAHU Comms Committee

For Immediate Release:
RAHU Press Conference Tomorrow and statement: “RAHU to Picket Short Term Rental Conference”

Press Conference:
9:30am Thursday the 12th of March
520 High St, Northcote, Victoria
Regarding STRive Conference and RAHU picket of it. All media welcome

Statement summary: 

The Renters And Housing Union:

• Denounces the STRive Conference and the short term real estate industry as a whole
• Commits to resisting and protesting STRive Conference.
  • Announces RAHU members will be picketing at 520 High St, Northcote, Victoria. From 9am on Thursday the 12th of March.
  • A press Conference will be held at 9:30am on Thursday the 12th of March. Elected leaders and members of RAHU will be making statements about the conference to press and taking questions.
• Calls upon all artists, workers and associated unions to call a boycott of the conference.
• Calls upon the City of Melbourne, the Victorian government, and any other body, to do as much as they can to prevent the proceeds of this conference.
• Calls on the Victorian government to create planning permits for commercial short stay operations

Naarm (Melbourne), Victoria – This week, on March 11th and 12th, STRive 2026 AUSTRALIA will be holding a Conference in Naarm (or Melbourne, as STRive decided to refer to it on their website).

This conference celebrates, promotes and helps support the greed and blatant gouging that the short term rental industry participates in and supports. 

The conference has no interest in the provision of housing as a human right; instead it’s only interest is in using homes to line pockets and for the greedy. With workshop topics like “Turning a Good STR (Short Term Rentals) Business into a Scalable, Valuable Asset”. Disgustingly, the Conference discusses the use of AI to run AirBnB portfolios. An inhumane travesty; using primitive and reasoning-less language models to decide who gets housing and who doesn’t should never be a thought that even crosses a human mind, yet it’s the forefront of this conference.

Even if we completely ignored the topics and discussion points of this conference; It is unacceptable for the short term real estate industry – with its huge effects on the affordability of housing – to be celebrated so gleefully and with such arrogance.

In Naarm (Melbourne) alone, there are 24,000 Airbnb’s listed for rent. Of these, 72.4% or 17,389 are considered to be whole houses or apartments. This means that there are 17,389 less houses available for Melbournians to actually live in.  30,660 Victorians were without a home at the last Census and 65,000 Victorians are still waiting for public housing.

Nationally, the ABC reported in 2024, Towns like Merivale in NSW have been made utterly uninhabitable for the locals. 3 rentals available in the entire town, meanwhile more than a thousand airBNB’s. Long term, habitable, and decent housing is now no longer a guarantee for tenants and renters of Merivale. 

These Air BNB’s and the broader short term rental industry is a vampiric on regional communities across Australia, and has devastated local economies and taken away what should rightfully be people’s homes. Such an industry should not be able to have a conference where they can campaign and exercise such greed and immorality in peace.

We need a State-Wide Planning Permit for Commercial Short-Stay Operations. Currently, Victoria has no consistent, state-wide rule requiring a planning permit to use a residential home as a commercial short-stay rental. This has created a patchwork of confusing and unenforceable local rules that fail to protect our housing stock. We demand the Victorian Government close this loophole by introducing a mandatory state-wide planning permit for all non-hosted short-stay accommodation. This would treat short-stay rentals like the commercial businesses they are, and give planners the power to manage their impact on housing supply and local communities.

A strict cap on short stay rentals in high density areas and suburbs where housing is most needed.

Power for local councils to set their own limits and enforce rules based on what their communities actually need. They know their suburbs better than anyone.

In light of this, RAHU will be picketing and resisting the conference from 9:00am on Thursday the 12th of March.

Quotes attributable to RAHU Secretary ADU:

“The STRive conference is a spit in the face of the millions of renters in Victoria. Both in metropolitan and regional areas have seen short term rentals distort already unaffordable rental markets. The conference celebrates making housing unaffordable for the sake of the asset values of a handful of investors and landlords.”

“Prioritising the exorbitant rents and asset growth over the very real needs and concerns of the over 30,000 homeless people of this state isn’t just an externality to consider, but a fundamental policy failure.”

Quotes attributable to RAHU member Alex:

“The proliferation of short stay rentals is a contributor to the housing crisis, placing further pressure on renters and RAHU members, particularly in regional and rural areas”