Tourism Minister Stuart Nash says regulation of Airbnbs to quell effects on the housing market could be "big brother territory".
The new Tourism Minister, who had replaced Kelvin Davis in the role, made the comments following a meeting with local government and tourism leaders at Rotorua Lakes Council on Thursday.
Nash said before Covid-19 there were many houses that otherwise would have been rentals rented out via businesses such as Airbnb, but since the border was closed, those houses were becoming long-term rentals again.
"It was part of the problem, but it wasn't the main problem. The main problem is supply and demand. We need to build more houses, that has no doubt."
"So whilst once upon a time they were the things that everybody wanted to sort out, actually right now they're helping us to sort out a problem that we've got, especially coming into Christmas where we're going to have huge demand on our accommodation sector."
Nash also clarified comments he made on Tuesday at a tourism summit in Queenstown.
He had said freedom campers "sh*t in our waterways", that he would ban tourists hiring vans that weren't self-contained and would focus New Zealand's tourism marketing efforts on "high net worth individuals".
Speaking to the media in Rotorua on Thursday, he directly contradicted the latter, saying "I'm talking about high value customers not necessarily high net-worth customers".
He also clarified vans that would need to be self-contained were those with beds.