Short-Stay Rules in Australia, State by State

New South Wales has the most developed framework in the country. The planning rules for short-term rental accommodation (STRA) came into effect on 1 November 2021 for most of the state and on 31 January 2022 in Byron Shire. They sit alongside the mandatory Code of Conduct for the industry, which started on 18 December 2020 and is administered by the Commissioner for Fair Trading, and the strata law changes of April 2020. Under the Housing SEPP, STRA in most lawfully built dwellings is exempt development, so no development application is needed as long as you meet the fire safety standard, register, follow the Code and stay within any day limit.

Every STRA dwelling must be on the government-run STRA Register on the NSW Planning Portal before you advertise it. Registration costs A$65 for the first 12 months and A$25 a year to renew, and both fees are non-refundable. A registration that is not renewed is blocked from taking platform bookings for three months and then de-registered. Each completed registration gets a STRA Property ID number (PID-STRA-XXXX), which the Planning Portal says is to be displayed on an online property listing.

Hosted STRA, where you live on the premises during the stay, can run 365 days a year. Non-hosted STRA is capped at 180 days in each 365-day period, counted from the date of registration, in the Greater Sydney region (not the Central Coast), the Ballina area and parts of the Clarence Valley and Muswellbrook areas. A booking of 21 or more consecutive days does not count towards the cap, and nights you block out for your own use are not counted. Everywhere else, non-hosted STRA may run 365 days a year.

Byron Shire is the exception. From 23 September 2024, non-hosted STRA under the exempt pathway is limited to 60 days a year across most of the shire, applying to new registrations from that date and to existing ones from their next renewal. Two mapped precincts, in and around the Byron Bay town centre and at Brunswick Heads, keep 365 days.

The NSW Government has been reviewing the STRA framework since a discussion paper was exhibited from 15 February to 14 March 2024. When we checked on 29 October 2026, the planning department's page (last updated 10 February 2025) still said it was considering submissions and announced no changes. City of Sydney council records from 27 October 2025 say three ministers told councils they can lodge their own planning proposals to cut the number of days, and a 28 April 2026 council motion says the government had taken no action so far. Watch your own council: a lower local cap would need NSW Government approval.

Market pages: SydneyByron BaySnowy MountainsPort StephensHunter ValleyJervis BayBlue MountainsMudgeeSouthern Highlands

Victoria has no state register or night cap. Its main tool is money: the Short Stay Levy, set by the Short Stay Levy Act 2024 and run by the State Revenue Office (SRO). Since 1 January 2025 the levy is 7.5% of the total booking fee for each stay of less than 28 consecutive days, not counting the checkout day. The total booking fee includes the nightly rate, cleaning fees, GST and any late checkout fee, but not credit card or payment processing fees or charges for damage. The SRO says the money funds social and affordable housing, with 25% invested in regional Victoria.

Who pays matters for your website. Under section 12 of the Act, the booking platform is liable for bookings made through it. For a direct booking, the owner (or a renter who accepts the booking) is liable, which means registering with the SRO and lodging returns: quarterly, within 30 days of each quarter, if your total booking fees reach A$75,000 in a calendar year, otherwise annually by 30 January. Stays in the owner's or renter's principal place of residence are excluded, as are hotels, motels and hostels and student accommodation linked to an educational institution (SRO page updated 29 September 2026).

Councils regulate short stays through their own local laws. Mornington Peninsula Shire requires annual registration under its Short Stay Rental Accommodation Local Law 2022 and a designated contact who can respond within two hours, day or night. Bass Coast Shire's Short Stay Rental Accommodation Local Law was adopted in July 2022 and took effect on 11 September 2023. Both councils say they play no role in the state levy and that owners must still register with council. When the levy was announced on 27 August 2024, the Premier's office also said the planning system would be changed to give councils power to regulate short stays; we did not find that change in force when we checked.

Apartments have two sets of owners corporation rules. Since February 2019 the Owners Corporations Act 2006 has let owners corporations and residents act against short-stay guests who make excessive noise, damage property or create hazards: VCAT can fine up to A$1,100, award neighbours up to A$2,000 compensation, and after three breach notices in 24 months stop the apartment being let for short stays for a period. Since 1 January 2025, an owners corporation can also make a rule banning short stays by special resolution (75% support), though not for lots that are the owner's or occupier's principal place of residence.

Market pages: MelbourneBright & the High CountryDaylesford & the Macedon RangesGreat Ocean RoadMansfield & Mt BullerMornington Peninsula

Queensland has no statewide short-stay register in operation that we could find when we checked on 29 October 2026. A University of Queensland review commissioned by the state found that short-term rentals have a limited impact on rental affordability and recommended a centralised registration system and a code of conduct. On 2 August 2023 the then Deputy Premier, Steven Miles, said the government had committed to looking into a registration system; the state planning page on the review was last updated on 11 August 2023 and records no scheme since.

Councils do the regulating. Noosa has had its Short Stay Letting and Home Hosted Accommodation Local Law since February 2022: every short stay let needs a one-off approval renewed each year, unless it sits in a visitor-accommodation-only site or the Hastings Street precinct. Fees for 2026/27 start at A$1,748 to apply for a house and A$455 for a unit, with annual renewals of A$800 and A$300 from 1 July 2026. Approval holders need a contact person available 24 hours a day who responds to complaints within 30 minutes and lives or works within 20 km, must keep a guest register for two years, and must tell the body corporate if the home is in a strata scheme.

Rates are the other lever. Brisbane City Council's 2026-27 rates resolution defines a transitory accommodation purpose as a dwelling offered, available or used for paying guests for more than 60 days in a year, in stays of less than 42 consecutive days, and says listings and advertising count as evidence. Hosted rooms in the owner's home are excluded, and owners are asked to notify council of the change in use. Brisbane consulted on a Short Stay Accommodation Local Law 2025 but has said it is not proceeding with it at this time. Sunshine Coast Council adjusted its transitory accommodation rate category in its 2025-26 budget (7 July 2025) to encourage houses back into long-term rental, with a smaller increase for units, and Noosa publishes a short stay transitory rating category fact sheet (July 2025).

On the Gold Coast, the council applies the Planning Regulation 2017 definition of short-term accommodation (stays of less than three consecutive months for tourists or travellers) and treats party houses as a separate use that neighbours can report. For apartments, Brisbane's Short-Stay Accommodation Taskforce report (June 2024) records that the Queensland tribunal held in Body Corporate for Hilton Park v Robertson [2018] that a by-law restricting holiday letting breaches the Body Corporate and Community Management Act, and that a body corporate cannot charge short-stay owners extra through by-laws. Check your scheme's by-laws and any law change before you rely on this.

Market pages: Gold CoastNoosa & the Sunshine CoastPort Douglas & CairnsBrisbaneThe Whitsundays

Since 1 January 2025, every short-term rental in Western Australia, hosted or unhosted, must be on the Short-Term Rental Accommodation (STRA) Register before it can be advertised or take bookings. The register is run by the Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety (LGIRS) under the Short-Term Rental Accommodation Act 2024. It costs A$250 to register a premises and A$100 to renew each year (fees page updated 2 July 2026). The government announced penalties of up to A$20,000 for an individual and A$100,000 for a corporation for offences such as advertising an unregistered property. By 24 August 2025 about 11,600 properties were registered.

Your registration number must be displayed conspicuously in all advertisements. An advertisement for an unregistered property, one that does not show the number, or one with a false number is a prohibited advertisement, and publishing one is an offence. Booking platforms are told to check that listings comply. The public can check whether a registration number is valid.

Planning is separate. Hosted STRA needs no planning approval anywhere in the state. In the Perth metropolitan area, unhosted STRA is exempt from development approval if it is let for 90 nights or fewer (non-consecutive) in a 12-month period counted from the registration date; above that it needs local government approval, and owners had to lodge an application by 1 January 2026 to keep operating. There is no cap on nights once approvals are in place. Outside Perth, including Peel, each local government decides when approval is needed. Some Perth councils go further: the City of Perth adopted scheme amendments on 9 December 2025, gazetted on 27 February 2026.

To move homes back to long-term rental, the state ran a STRA Incentive Scheme, first announced on 9 November 2023, paying A$10,000 (A$4,000 on approval and A$6,000 after a 12-month lease) to owners of unhosted short stays. The scheme page (updated 28 February 2026) says it has closed early after all funds were allocated.

Market pages: Margaret RiverPerthMandurahExmouth & Ningaloo

South Australia has no short-stay register in operation yet. On 17 September 2026 the government said it will introduce a register of short-term rental accommodation properties, with consultation, including booking platforms such as Airbnb and Stayz, deciding its final scope and any further reforms. Consumer and Business Services (CBS) is collecting feedback, including on whether a Code of Conduct should apply. The release links the register to a parliamentary inquiry into short-stay rental accommodation chaired by Greens MLC Robert Simms, whose final report recommended a register. No start date had been set when we checked on 29 October 2026.

Councils already have tools. The Barossa Council says development approval is required to use an existing dwelling for any form of tourist accommodation, whatever the number of guests. The City of Unley, from 1 July 2025, rates a home as 'commercial - other' when more than half of it is available for short-stay rental for 183 or more nights in the previous financial year: a rate in the dollar of 0.004620 instead of the residential 0.001650, or A$4,620 instead of A$1,650 on a A$1,000,000 capital value. Owners who live there permanently, or let a single room while living there, are not caught.

State land tax applies to the land you own at midnight on 30 June each year, unless an exemption such as the principal place of residence applies, so a holiday home that is not your home is generally assessed (RevenueSA). If the home is in a strata or community scheme, read the scheme's by-laws before you list it.

Market pages: AdelaideBarossa Valley

In Tasmania the planning scheme decides whether you need a permit. The State Planning Office's fact sheet (September 2025) says short stay use of a dwelling needs no permit if it is the owner's or occupier's main home and either it is let only while they are on holiday or temporarily away, or guests use no more than four bedrooms while they live there. Other short stays generally need a planning permit, unless the use has existing use rights. Ask your council before you start.

The Short Stay Accommodation Act 2019 makes the permit visible. Before a booking platform can take your listing, you must give it your permit status (an exemption statement, the permit number or a statement of existing use rights), the full address, the number of bedrooms used for guests and whether it is your primary residence. The platform must display the permit status and give the information to the Director of Building Control every quarter, which helps councils enforce the scheme.

Hobart considered limiting whole-home short stays, but the City of Hobart says its proposed restriction on whole-dwelling short stays in residential zones is not included in its Local Provisions Schedule, and that the State Planning Provisions do not restrict them.

A levy came close. The Short Stay Levy Bill 2026, tabled by Treasurer Eric Abetz on 16 April 2026, would have charged 5% on short stays booked through a booking platform from no earlier than 1 January 2027, excluding direct bookings and homes the owner also usually occupies, to fund first home buyer programs. It passed the House of Assembly with amendment on 7 May 2026 but was defeated in the Legislative Council on 9 September 2026 after a six-all vote, with the President casting the deciding vote against (Tasmanian Treasury, page updated 15 September 2026). No levy applies today.

Market pages: HobartFreycinet & the East Coast

The ACT taxes short stays rather than capping them. Under the Short-Term Rental Accommodation Levy Act 2025, bookings made from 1 July 2025 for stays of no more than 28 continuous days (not counting the checkout day) carry a levy of 5% of the total booking amount, rising to 7.5% from 1 July 2027. The booking service provider is liable, lodging quarterly returns and paying within 30 days of each quarter.

Direct bookings with an owner or occupier are not subject to the levy, and neither is hosted accommodation where the owner or occupant stays in the property at the same time. Hotels, motels, caravan parks, camping grounds, hostels and boarding houses are also excluded (ACT Revenue Office, published 1 July 2026).

ACT land tax applies to residential properties that are not a principal place of residence, such as rented or vacant property, so an investment holiday home is in scope; foreign owners who pay land tax also pay a foreign ownership surcharge. We did not find ACT planning rules specific to short stays when we checked on 29 October 2026; if you live in a unit, check your owners corporation rules.

Market pages: Canberra

When we checked on 29 October 2026, we found no Northern Territory register for short-stay homes, no levy and no cap on nights. The Northern Territory Government's planning pages and planning scheme documents would not open for our checker, so this section states only what we did not find rather than repeating detail we could not read for ourselves.

Before you list a home in Darwin, Alice Springs or anywhere else in the Territory, ask the Territory's planning authority how the planning scheme treats temporary visitor accommodation in a dwelling, and read your body corporate's by-laws if it is a unit. The national rules in the next section (ATO, foreign investment, insurance) and the Australian Consumer Law on your booking page apply here as everywhere.

Market pages: Darwin

Tax. Short-stay income is rental income for the ATO, whichever platform it comes through. The ATO's 2026 guidance on rental properties (TR 2026/1, PCG 2026/2 and PCG 2026/3) covers the short-term market and holiday homes. Under section 26-50 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, you can claim ownership and use expenses for a holiday home, such as interest, council and water rates, body corporate fees, land tax and repairs, only if the home is used or held for use mainly to produce rental income. Booking, advertising and cleaning fees that relate only to renting it out are not ownership expenses and remain deductible. Even when the home is mainly rented, you must apportion for private use, including stays by family or friends for no rent or below market rent, and the ATO looks at how often the home is available at the times people want to holiday. Ask your accountant how this applies to you.

GST and capital gains. The ATO says that if you rent out residential premises for residential accommodation, the rent is input taxed: you don't include GST in the rental charge and can't claim GST credits for the costs. Your main residence is exempt from capital gains tax if you are an Australian resident, but if you rent out part of it, including through the sharing economy, you lose the full exemption and the part used to earn income is taxed when you sell.

Foreign owners. From 1 April 2025 to 30 June 2029, government policy generally bans foreign persons, including temporary residents and foreign-owned companies, from buying established dwellings, with limited exceptions that still need approval (Guidance Note 6, version 5, 1 July 2026). Foreign owners also pay an annual vacancy fee if the home is not residentially occupied or genuinely available for rent for at least 183 days a year, and short-term lets of less than 30 days, including through holiday rental websites, do not count. A foreign-owned home let only as a short stay can therefore owe the fee.

Strata and insurance. Strata rules differ by state: an owners corporation in New South Wales can ban short stays in lots that are not the host's principal home (since April 2020), Victoria allows a ban by 75% special resolution (since 1 January 2025), and in Queensland a 2018 tribunal decision found by-laws restricting holiday letting invalid. On insurance, Moneysmart notes that cover you would usually expect, such as for a granny flat, may not apply if you rent it out, and tells you to read the exclusions, the Key Fact Sheet and the product disclosure statement. Tell your insurer the home takes paying guests and confirm public liability is covered; in New South Wales the Code of Conduct requires hosts to hold insurance for third-party injury and death.