Short-Term Rentals, Soaring Rents, Slow Approvals: How Sunshine Coast Stacks Up Against the World's Boom Towns

Sunshine Coast Council approved just 63 percent of development applications within its statutory timeframe in the 2024-25 financial year, according to council performance data, a figure that sits well below the Queensland government's 75 percent benchmark and trails comparable coastal growth corridors including Geelong and the Gold Coast. With the Maroochydore CBD still mid-construction and a rental vacancy rate hovering below one percent across most of the region, the gap between planning ambition and planning delivery is now a live political issue heading into the October council elections.

The timing matters. Across the developed world, mid-sized coastal cities that absorbed a wave of post-pandemic internal migration are now reckoning with what that growth actually cost. Lisbon introduced hard caps on new Airbnb licences in 2023. Queenstown, New Zealand, followed with a short-term rental register and nightly surcharge last year. Barcelona is now buying back tourist apartments outright. Sunshine Coast has none of those tools in place, and local advocacy groups say the gap is showing up in the numbers.

A Council Caught Between Growth and Liveability

The Sunshine Coast's population crossed 380,000 sometime in mid-2025, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics regional projections, making it one of the fastest-growing local government areas in Queensland. Demand for housing has not eased accordingly. Median house prices in Buderim sat at approximately $1.02 million as of the March 2026 quarter, while Alexandra Headland units, long considered an entry point, nudged past $780,000. The Sunshine Coast Local Housing Action Plan, adopted by council in late 2024, identified short-term rental saturation as a key pressure point, particularly in the beachside strip running from Mooloolaba to Coolum Beach.

Yet the council's regulatory response remains limited to a voluntary code of conduct and a registration framework that carries no enforcement penalties for non-compliant operators. The Sunshine Coast Alliance for Affordable Rentals, a coalition of social housing advocates and community legal centres based in Nambour, lodged a formal submission to the state government in May calling on Queensland to grant councils the power to impose occupancy limits on investment properties, a power that councils in Lisbon and Amsterdam now exercise routinely. The submission is still with the Department of Housing, Local Government, Planning and Public Works.

What Other Cities Did Differently

The comparison with similarly sized coastal cities is uncomfortable reading for local councillors. Porto, Portugal, population roughly 240,000 in its urban core, saw long-term rental supply increase by 11 percent within 18 months of introducing its short-term rental moratorium in late 2023. Noosa Shire, directly north of Sunshine Coast, moved faster than its larger neighbour and introduced a short-term accommodation register with annual fees in February 2025; council officers there say compliance is tracking at 84 percent after five months of enforcement. Sunshine Coast's register, by contrast, has been flagged in council budget documents but has not yet been brought to a full council vote.

The Maroochydore CBD project, a 53-hectare greenfield development being delivered by SunCentral Maroochydore, represents the council's most direct lever for adding housing supply. Stage 3 of the project, which includes two mixed-use residential towers on Dalton Drive, received a development permit in April 2026 but has not yet attracted a confirmed builder, with construction cost blowouts cited by the developer in planning documents. SunCentral has indicated a construction start before mid-2027 remains the target.

For residents watching Aerodrome Road rents climb and the Nambour Hospital precinct fill with key workers who cannot find affordable housing nearby, the abstract global comparisons carry a practical edge. The October council elections will likely force candidates to take explicit positions on short-term rental regulation for the first time. Voters in Caloundra and Maroochydore wards, where investor-owned holiday properties are most heavily concentrated, will want answers before polling day. The Queensland government's long-awaited review of the Planning Act's provisions for short-term accommodation is expected to report by September, giving candidates something concrete to respond to, one way or another.