More than 200 people rallied on Christmas Eve at Main Beach in Byron Bay to call for a 90 day limit on using residential houses for short stay holiday accommodation like AirBnB.

A significant increase in the number of investors buying local properties for the short term holiday market is pricing residents out of the market.

Local Greens MP Tamara Smith told the rally that “the fundamental principle is that we want homes for people to live in”.

The current situation represents a “complete loss of the right for homes to live in”, she said.