Big Changes Coming for the Gold Coast Short Term Rental Market

There has been a substantial increase in news coverage pertaining to unlicensed holiday rentals on the Gold Coast recently. Last night & the night before the news had a feature about property owners being fined anywhere between $10,000 to $500,000 for having unlicensed short term rentals on platforms such as Airbnb and HomeAway. This is due to a change in Council regulations in 2016.

Council have been tightlipped about this new regulation, however now that the Commonwealth Games is over they are cracking down on property owners and management companies and local Councillors are placing pressure on Council to enforce this regulation.

Council requires that property owners have a short term rental permit that costs $8086 per application, excluding any professional fees to prepare an application and fees to meet safety regulations, which could drive the costs upwards of $20,000. A permit may/may not be approved regardless of the expense to apply as Council will take into account zoning and other factors.

 

So even if running an AIR BNB you'll have to pay these new permit fees? If so that has got to really hurt the old model.

 

But has anyone actually been fined?

Sadly, many Airbnb hosts ignore all council or body corporate rulings.

We looked at Airbnb apartments for a recent visit to Vancouver. From the number of listings that stressed that we were to tell neighbours we were “just visiting friends” we assumed these listings contravened some regulations. We could not risk a last minute cancellation so booked a hotel.
Marg