Home and away from home: the urban-regional dynamics of second home ownership in Australia

Abstract

Despite the growth of domestic and international markets in second homes, there has been relatively little research on this issue in the Australian context. Yet several features of this context present interesting ways of extending the debates about second home ownership that have characterised social and policy discussions to date in the UK and Europe. In this paper we consider the overall extent, regional distribution and broader impacts of a form of second home ownership that has risen rapidly and which is facilitated by a range of fiscal and macro-economic settings. We present the results of two national surveys that asked about the ownership of holiday homes and which reveal extensive ownership across a range of social groups. We then move to a discussion of a case study in the island state of Tasmania and to the growing commodification of its holiday ‘shack’ market to add depth to discussions about the localised ramifications of second home ownership. We conclude by discussing our results in the context of the international literature and by considering the public policy issues that our data raise.