Short-stay letting in Queensland: what councils and bodies corporate allow

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Kooky

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An apartment near the beach or a house close to a stadium can earn more by the night than by the year, and many Queensland investors have done the sums. What the sums leave out is permission. Queensland has no single statewide licence for short-stay letting and no statewide cap on the number of nights. The rules are set council by council, and for a unit or townhouse they are shaped again by the body corporate. Two properties with the same view, a few streets apart on either side of a council boundary, can face entirely different requirements.

This guide explains the layers that decide whether a dwelling can be let to visitors for short periods: the planning scheme, the council's local laws, and the by-laws of a community titles scheme. It uses two councils as examples of the range, Noosa, which runs one of the most detailed approval systems in the state, and Brisbane, which in May 2026 decided not to introduce a permit scheme it had drafted. It then covers what a body corporate can and cannot do, and two obligations that apply everywhere. It describes the general position; the answer for any one property depends on its address, its zoning and its title.

Noosa Council, short stay letting fees and conditions for 2026-27; Brisbane City Council, proposed Short Stay Accommodation Local Law 2025.

Three layers of permission

It helps to separate three questions that are often run together.

The first is a planning question: is using this dwelling for short-term visitor accommodation a lawful use of the land? Planning schemes are written by each council under the State's planning framework, and they treat letting a home to visitors for short periods as something different from living in it. Depending on the scheme and the zone, the use may be allowed without an application, may need a development approval, or may not be supported at all.

The second is a local law question: does the council require the operator to hold an approval or permit to carry on short-stay letting, with conditions about how it is run? A local law is separate from the planning scheme. It deals with conduct, such as noise, parking, complaints and who answers the phone at midnight, and it usually carries an annual fee.

The third applies only to lots in a community titles scheme: what do the by-laws say, and what can the body corporate enforce? This is a matter of State body corporate legislation, not council rules.

A property has to clear every layer that applies to it. A planning right without the local law approval, where one is required, is not enough, and neither is a local law approval obtained for a property with no planning right. Noosa Council makes the sequence explicit: an applicant must show lawful town planning rights before the council will consider a local law approval.

How planning rights arise

Noosa's guidance lists the ways a property can hold the planning right, and the list is a useful map of how the system works anywhere in the state. The right can come from a development approval granted for short-term accommodation. It can exist because the use is accepted development in that zone, meaning the planning scheme allows it without an application. It can be an existing use right, where the property was lawfully used that way before the scheme changed. Or it can come from an approval under a superseded planning scheme.

Each of these has to be demonstrated. An existing use right, in particular, depends on evidence that the use was lawful when it began and has continued, and a history of bookings is not on its own proof that the use was ever lawful.

The length of stay that turns a tenancy into short-term accommodation is drawn in the same place by the two councils discussed here. Noosa's local law applies to properties let for fewer than three consecutive months. Brisbane's draft local law defined short stay accommodation as premises available for letting for one or more periods of less than 90 consecutive days. A fixed-term lease of six months to a tenant is ordinary residential letting under either; a string of weekly bookings is not.

Both councils also separate letting a whole dwelling from hosting guests in a home the owner lives in. Brisbane's draft excluded home-hosted accommodation, where the owner is in residence during the stay, along with hotels, resorts and serviced apartments. Noosa's law covers home-hosted accommodation under its own heading and charges far less for a principal residence let only occasionally.

Noosa: approval, fees and a person on call

Noosa's Short Stay Letting and Home Hosted Accommodation Local Law began in February 2022, and the council's published material gives a clear picture of what a full approval system asks of an owner.

Approval is required for any property let for fewer than three consecutive months, unless it is exempt. The exemptions the council lists are visitor accommodation sites, the Hastings Street mixed use precinct, and motels, hotels and backpacker accommodation. Approval must be renewed every year for as long as the property operates.

The conditions go well beyond the fee. Each approved property must have a nominated person who is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is located within 20 kilometres of the premises and can respond to a complaint within 30 minutes. The property must display an approval sign of a specified size. The owner must hold public liability insurance of $10 million, keep a register of guests and a register of complaints, provide parking on site and manage waste.

Guests are bound by a code of conduct, which the owner is responsible for bringing to their attention. It requires them to avoid noise nuisance and respect residential amenity, and it prohibits camping or pitching tents on the property. The council runs a complaints hotline that operates around the clock.

For an investor, the Noosa model has two consequences that belong in the purchase decision. The first is cost and effort: the approval is not a formality, and the 30-minute response rule in practice means paying a local manager. The second is that the approval is tied to conduct, and conduct is judged by the neighbours.

Conditions can be tightened after approval

An approval is not a permanent entitlement on fixed terms. In August 2026, Sunshine Coast News reported on a short-stay property at Noosa Heads that had held its approval since March 2022. According to the report, the council received eight complaints about noise from guests between early September and late November 2025, issued a show cause notice and then imposed additional conditions: no use of outdoor entertaining areas or outdoor lighting, other than security lighting, after 9pm or before 6am, and no use of the swimming pool or spa after 9pm or before 7am.

The owners appealed to the Planning and Environment Court, arguing that the complaints were largely unsubstantiated and that the original conditions were sufficient. Council officers recommended that the council continue to defend the appeal, on the basis that the amended conditions were appropriate. The matter was before the court at the time of the report and its outcome is not known.

The episode shows how the system operates in a council that regulates closely. Complaints are logged, a pattern of them prompts a review, and the result can be conditions that reduce what a property offers its guests. A house marketed around its pool and deck is a different product with a 9pm curfew on both.

Brisbane: a permit scheme drafted, then shelved

Brisbane has taken the opposite course. The council set up a Short Stay Accommodation Taskforce in 2023 and went on to draft the Short Stay Accommodation Local Law 2025, which would have required a permit for every short-stay premises from 1 July 2026.

The draft shows what the council had in mind. An operator would have needed a permit before advertising, operating or accepting bookings, with one permit per premises, valid for 12 months. The application required the owner's consent where the applicant was not the owner, notification of the body corporate for a lot in a community titles scheme, confirmation that any approval otherwise required had been obtained, and the details of a person available at all hours to respond to complaints. The maximum penalties in the draft rose from 50 penalty units for a first offence to 200 for a second and 850 for a third or later offence.

In May 2026 the council announced that it was not proceeding with the local law at this time. Its published explanation gives three reasons: the rapid growth of platform-based short stays had slowed since the discussion began in 2023, hosts' management practices had improved, and short stays serve purposes beyond tourism, including accommodation for people escaping domestic violence, households displaced during insurance claims and patients visiting hospitals.

The accommodation trade publication AccomNews reported that the Australian Short Term Rental Accommodation Association welcomed the decision. Its chair, Yoav Tourel, was quoted as saying: "Short-term rentals are not one thing."

The decision removes one layer in Brisbane, the local law permit, and leaves the other two in place. An owner still has to establish that the use is lawful under City Plan for that property and zone, and an owner of a unit still has to deal with the body corporate. The words "at this time" in the council's statement also matter: the draft exists, and a future council could return to it.

Every other council

The two examples mark the ends of a range. Queensland's other councils sit at various points along it, and their rules change. This guide does not survey them one by one, because a list would date quickly.

For a property anywhere in the state, the same set of questions produces the answer, and each can be put to the council in writing before a contract becomes unconditional.

1. What is the zoning of the property, and is short-term accommodation in a dwelling accepted development, assessable development or not supported in that zone?
2. Does the property hold a development approval or an existing use right for short-term accommodation, and can the seller produce it?
3. Does the council have a local law requiring an approval, permit or registration for short-stay letting, and does the current one transfer to a new owner or must the buyer apply afresh?
4. What are the application and annual fees, and what conditions apply to an on-call person, insurance, parking and signage?
5. Does the council rate short-stay properties differently from other residential properties?

The third question is the one buyers most often overlook. An approval held by a seller is evidence that the property can qualify. Whether it passes to the buyer is a matter for that council's local law.

What a body corporate can and cannot do

For an apartment or townhouse in a community titles scheme, the by-laws are the third layer, and Queensland's position is unusual. The State Government's guidance on making by-laws lists what a by-law cannot do, and the first item is that a by-law cannot restrict the type of residential use of a residential lot. The list goes on: a by-law cannot stop or restrict a sale, lease, transfer, mortgage or other dealing with a lot, cannot discriminate between types of occupiers, cannot impose a monetary liability on an owner or occupier other than in an exclusive use by-law, and cannot be unreasonable having regard to the interests of all owners and occupiers.

The practical reading is that a body corporate cannot simply pass a by-law banning short-stay letting in a residential lot, where that letting is otherwise lawful. Short-stay and long-stay occupation are both residential uses, and choosing between them is the lot owner's decision, subject to the council.

That does not leave a body corporate without tools. By-laws are, in the Government's description, the rules a body corporate makes to control and manage common property such as driveways, car parks and swimming pools, and they can deal with noise, nuisance and the behaviour of occupiers and their guests. A by-law about pool hours, visitor parking, the use of lifts for luggage or security access applies to short-stay guests exactly as it applies to owners. Either the body corporate or an owner or occupier can take enforcement action over a breach, through the process set out in the State's guidance and, if needed, the dispute resolution service of the body corporate commissioner's office.

Changing the by-laws is a formal step. The Government's guidance says a change generally needs a special resolution at a general meeting, and the new community management statement must be lodged with Titles Queensland within three months of the motion passing. The by-law takes effect when the registrar records the statement.

Two cautions follow for a buyer. A building's character is still shaped by its mix of occupants, and a scheme where many lots are let by the night will feel different from one that is mostly owner-occupied, whatever the by-laws say. And some buildings are subject to planning conditions or management arrangements that govern how lots are let, which sit outside the by-laws altogether. The disclosure documents for the scheme, and the body corporate's records, are where both show up.

Obligations that apply in every council

Two requirements do not depend on the council.

The first is fire safety. The Queensland Fire Department requires smoke alarms in dwellings to be photoelectric and interconnected, installed in each bedroom, in hallways connecting bedrooms to the rest of the dwelling and on each storey, and from 1 January 2027 that standard applies to all existing private homes, townhouses and units. A dwelling offered to paying guests who do not know the layout is not the place to be behind on it.

The second concerns foreign owners. A foreign person who bought a dwelling under federal approval must lodge an annual vacancy fee return with the Australian Taxation Office, and avoids the fee only if the dwelling is residentially occupied for at least 183 days in the year. The ATO states that short-term rentals of less than 30 days do not count. A foreign-owned apartment let entirely through short stays can therefore be treated as vacant, with a fee equal to double the original application fee.

An owner's own insurer and lender should also be told. A landlord policy written for a residential tenancy may not respond to a claim arising from nightly letting, and Noosa's requirement for $10 million of public liability cover gives a sense of what a council regards as adequate.

What to check before buying with short stays in mind

For an investor comparing a short-stay return with a long-term rent, the permissions come before the yield. A projected nightly rate is worth nothing for a property that cannot lawfully be let that way, and a property that can be let that way today is subject to conditions that may tighten.

The planning right is the foundation, and it attaches to the land. The local law approval, where one exists, is renewable each year and may not pass automatically to a buyer. The by-laws cannot ban the use but will govern how guests behave in the building. The running costs include a local person on call, higher insurance and, in councils with a local law, an annual fee.

In Queensland the question is never just whether short-stay letting is allowed. It is which council, which zone, which building and on what conditions.

Where the rules are published

Each council publishes its planning scheme and its local laws, and most offer a written planning advice service for a specific address. Noosa Council publishes its local law, fee schedule, conditions and code of conduct. Brisbane City Council publishes its statement on the shelved local law and provides access to City Plan. The Queensland Government's body corporate pages set out the limits on by-laws and the enforcement process, and the Office of the Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management runs an information service. The Queensland Fire Department publishes the smoke alarm requirements, and the ATO the vacancy fee rules for foreign owners.

Council rules in this area have moved several times since 2022, in both directions. The position described here is the published position at the time of writing.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

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