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Strata by-laws and short-term letting: NSW, Victoria, Queensland and WA are not the same rule

Sergej Sitki · founder of ReceptionGO and host
Published 1 November 2026 · 7 min read

General information, not legal, tax or insurance advice. Check your own case with your council, the ATO or the state revenue office, or an accountant. Rates and dates below were checked on the date shown — recheck the linked official page before you lodge, register or set a price from them.

NSW can ban short-term letting of a lot that is not the host’s principal place of residence. Victoria has allowed a similar ban since 1 January 2025. A Queensland body corporate generally cannot restrict residential use. In WA a by-law that prohibits short stays can get the registration cancelled.

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People buy a unit because the state allows short stays, then discover the building does not. The state Act and the by-law are two locks. You need both open. They are cut differently in Sydney, Melbourne, the Gold Coast and Perth, and a template by-law forwarded from another state is how committees pass something that does nothing, or owners list a lot the building has already closed.

New South Wales: investment lots can be closed

Section 137A of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 is short. A by-law made by special resolution may prohibit a lot being used for a short-term rental accommodation arrangement if the lot is not the principal place of residence of the person who is granting the occupation. A by-law has no force to the extent it tries to prevent the use where the lot is that person’s principal place of residence.

NSW Fair Trading’s plain-English version matches the section. If you live there, you can still rent the home, or rooms in it, including while you are temporarily away. If you do not live there, the building can stop you. The same page says an owners corporation can set an occupancy of two adults per bedroom by by-law. That limit belongs in the listing and in the check-in, not only in the minutes. The code of conduct also expects you to tell the owners corporation and the neighbours that the lot is used for short-term rental accommodation — see the NSW register guide.

A by-law should say when it starts. Existing bookings do not vanish because a vote happened on Tuesday. Fair Trading tells schemes to manage that transition, or to commence the by-law on a future date.

Victoria: a ban from the same day as the levy

Consumer Affairs Victoria states that from 1 January 2025 owners corporations can make rules to ban short-stay accommodation. The rules cannot apply to a lot that is the owner’s or occupier’s principal place of residence. Someone who lives in the apartment can still let it, or let rooms, including while they are temporarily away. The power arrived in the Short Stay Levy Act, which is why people mix it up with the 7.5%. The levy is money. The rule is whether the use may happen at all. Both are explained from the levy side in Victoria’s short stay levy, and from the city side in Melbourne.

Read the registered rules, not the chat. A special resolution is a high bar, and a rule that was never properly made is not a rule. A rule that was properly made will beat a booking you have already taken, in the only way that matters: the guest cannot use the lift, the car park or the pool without a fight you will lose in public.

Queensland: the by-law probably cannot prohibit the use

Section 180(3) of the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 says that if a lot may lawfully be used for residential purposes, the by-laws cannot restrict the type of residential use. The question is whether short-term letting is a type of residential use. In Body Corporate for Hilton Park v Robertson [2018] QCATA 168, the appeal tribunal said it was, and knocked out a motion that would have confined letting to longer stays.

Be precise about how far that goes. It is an appeal decision, not a sentence on a government fact sheet that says holiday letting cannot be banned. A lawyer who knows the building is worth more than a blog summary if the committee is threatening proceedings. And it is the BCCM Act. Schemes still governed by the Building Units and Group Titles Act have a different result in the Fairway Island cases, where a one-month minimum was upheld. Ask which Act is on the community management statement before you quote Hilton Park at an AGM on the Gold Coast. The Coast’s planning question, which is separate, is in Gold Coast holiday rentals and Queensland short-stay rules.

What a Queensland body corporate can still do is enforce real behavioural by-laws: noise, nuisance, the car park, the pool gate, rubbish. Those are the complaints that generate the reviews, and they are fair. A guest who treats a residential pool as a party venue is a hosting problem even when the by-law cannot cancel the letting itself.

Western Australia: the by-law can unpick the registration

WA’s register FAQ says a strata or community-title lot can be used as short-term rental accommodation unless a by-law prohibits it. If the by-law prohibits it, the registration may be cancelled or suspended. The number on the Stayz ad does not override the scheme. Check the by-laws first. The register steps are in the WA guide.

What to put in the guest’s hands

Whichever state you are in, the committee’s live ammunition is behaviour. Write the occupancy, the quiet hours, the car spaces and the pool rules in the same words on the listing and in check-in. A rule the guest accepted at 4pm is a different conversation from a rule you mention after the security guard has called. Pair that with the safety items the building already requires — alarms, the pool, the insurer who knows the lot is let — in fire safety, pools and insurance.

In a capped NSW council the by-law and the 180 days both apply. Surviving one does not survive the other. Sydney holiday rentals is the city version of that double test.