The NSW Government is caught in the middle between the boost that short-term accommodation gives to local tourism and increasing the supply of long-term rentals to meet the housing crisis.
This is the NSW policy and law:
- The residential tenancy law does not apply to short-term rentals because they last for less than 3 months at a time
- Only houses, home units and granny flats can be used for short-term rental accommodation – they must have been built or approved as residential accommodation
- The rules are loose for hosted accommodation. This is where an owner is residing at the property when renting a spare room. Interestingly, a granny flat can be the spare room.
- The rules are tight for non-hosted accommodation. This is where an owner is not residing at the property, either by making their home available while they are away, or a holiday flat or house made available year-round.
- A day cap applies for non-hosted accommodation in the Greater Sydney Region, Ballina Shire, Muswellbrook and Clarence Valley areas of 180 days in a 365-day period. Byron Shire has its own day cap of 60 days . Elsewhere in NSW, there is no day cap.
- Strata units and strata townhouses can ban short-term rental accommodation if it is non-hosted.
- These requirements apply to a property used for Short-Term Rental Accommodation (STRA): it must meet fire safety standards (such as smoke alarms), it must be registered on the STRA Register and the STRA Code of Conduct must be observed.
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