Mayor Ian Smith will write to ratepayers who don't live in their properties and ask them to consider leasing them on a long-term basis.

Councillors endorsed the plan at the September meeting, acknowledging there was a critical need for more housing, with a vacancy rate of below one per cent across the region.

"Of course it's up to home owners what they do with their private property - council certainly isn't about to start telling people what to do, but we hope this might spark a thought and start a conversation," he said.

"We know there are a large number of properties that sit vacant for much of the year - if we can get some of those into the long-term rental property market through this letter and subsequent social media campaign, then that's a win for everyone."

Cr Smith said a property owner's situation may have changed and they may not be getting to their second property as much as they once were.

"If this can make them think about the situation and then make their property available for a long-term tenant, then we have achieved what we set out to do," he said.

Cr Smith said the shortage of rental properties was having wide ranging impacts across Moyne - from people facing homelessness to businesses not being able to attract workers.

He said while providing housing wasn't a primary responsibility of council, there were leavers it could use to assist.

"One of those is the cabins we have installed at Mortlake and Koroit Caravan Parks," Cr Smith said.

"The Koroit cabins in particular are being completed with state government funding to provide short-term accommodation for workers in key industries.

"They will come online in September and we have had a solid level of interest from businesses keen to make use of them for workers. That's coming from key industries like agriculture, food processing and construction.

"The cabins in Mortlake are also booked solidly for the next few months with workers and that obviously has flow on benefits for the town, with workers then having a meal, doing the groceries or filling up with fuel."

Cr Smith said Moyne was also the lead on a regional project looking at what was needed to address market failures.

"That's being done across seven council's and again is state government funded," Cr Smith said.

"What that piece of work is doing is looking at locations and looking at what is required to address that market failures. That could be subsidies for developers or providing council-owned land to minimise upfront costs."

While the property vacancy rate is below one per cent, data shows the number of Airbnbs listed in Moyne shires has declined - from 644 in 2019 to 488 in 2022.

In Port Stephens, the council is also urging property owners to help locals.

"Rent is so expensive and there's people that aren't the traditional style of homeless people, living in cars and couch surfing because they can't afford a home," Port Stephens councillor Leah Anderson said.

On the 2021 Census night, there were 1,043,776 unoccupied dwellings Australia wide - 5236 of those were in Port Stephens, 1006 in Byron Bay and 6226 in Eurobodalla.

While the ABS data did not specify which were holiday homes, holiday letting site Home to Go identified 5,507 holiday homes within the Port Stephens council area alone.

Ms Anderson was inspired to do a callout to investment property owners after seeing the success of a similar plea from Eurobadalla Shire Council in the South Coast, where mayor Mathew Hatcher wrote a letter asking holiday landlords to consider renting their properties for the next one to two years.

"Even if it's one person that considers it and puts their house on, well that's one extra house on the market for a family," Ms Anderson said.

Byron Bay Shire mayor Michael Lyon also followed suit after statistics from Airbnb revealed 16 per cent of dwellings in the area were holiday rentals.

"Owning a property that is available for long-term rental accommodation is perhaps not as financially lucrative for landlords, but to be able to offer a family, or individuals, permanent, stable accommodation delivers a social benefit that is far more valuable than money," he said.

"The fabric of our community is so stretched now with businesses unable to find staff, people wanting to move to the area to work but not able to afford to live here, or people living here and having to leave because they cannot find affordable, long-term accommodation.

In the World Heritage-listed Blue Mountains west of Sydney, the local council has also called on home owners with investment properties to place them on the long-term rental market.

Australian Short Term Rental Association estimated there were 155,000 private home holiday lets available nationally, with about 70,000 in NSW and 50,000 in Victoria.

Meanwhile, Warrnambool City Council will soon begin consulting with community members about the introduction of a $400 annual fee that would be applied to properties used for short-term accommodation.

Mayor Vicki Jellie said the fee could be introduced for two main reasons.

"One is that it will encourage property owners to consider making their property available for long-term rental," she said.

"The other is that the proposed fee is in line with actions taken by other municipalities to address the inequity between recognised, registered visitor accommodation providers who pay a commercial rate and those also providing visitor accommodation through platforms such as AirBnb, which have a residential rate applied to their properties."

There has also been speculation from real estate agents that tenancy law changes have resulted in some landlords taking their homes off the rental market.

Member for South West Coast Roma Britnell told The Standard she has spoken to a number of landlords concerned about some of the changes.

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