Sunshine Coast Council Restricts Short-Term Rentals; Airbnb Listings Face New Rules

Sunshine Coast Council is approaching a decision point on short-term rental regulation that will affect thousands of property owners, long-term renters, and the region's tourism economy, and the window for public input is narrowing fast. A policy framework expected to land before council before the end of the third quarter of 2026 would require hosts to register dwellings, cap the number of nights properties can be let annually, and introduce a compliance levy tied to booking platform data.

The pressure is real and immediate. Queensland's rental vacancy rate has been sitting below one per cent across the Sunshine Coast for much of the past two years, squeezing locals out of suburbs from Mooloolaba to Peregian Beach. At the same time, the region's population has been climbing sharply, the Sunshine Coast is one of the fastest-growing local government areas in Australia, with the council's own planning documents projecting the population will exceed 500,000 by 2041. Affordable long-term rentals are disappearing into the short-stay pool, and community pressure on elected members has been building since at least mid-2024.

The regulatory push mirrors moves already made elsewhere in Queensland. The state government's Housing and Homelessness Action Plan, updated in late 2025, flagged short-term rental reform as a priority lever. Sunshine Coast Council has been developing its own local planning scheme amendments to sit alongside any state-level framework, a process that involves the Sunshine Coast Economic Destinations body as a key stakeholder, given tourism's outsized role in the local economy. Industry groups representing accommodation providers along Hastings Street in Noosa and the Esplanade strip in Mooloolaba have been lobbying for a measured rollout rather than a hard cap, arguing the region's visitor economy depends on flexible supply.

What the Proposed Rules Would Actually Mean

Under the draft framework circulated to stakeholders in May 2026, any dwelling listed on platforms including Airbnb and Stayz for more than 60 nights per calendar year would require a registration number from the council. Properties in identified housing-pressure zones, which include parts of Caloundra's Kings Beach precinct and the hinterland townships of Montville and Maleny, could face a lower threshold of 45 nights before full registration and levy obligations kick in. The levy amount has not been finalised, but comparable schemes in Byron Bay, New South Wales, are set at roughly $1,000 per registered property per year, providing a rough benchmark for what Sunshine Coast hosts might face.

Compliance is the hard part. The council does not currently have a dedicated enforcement unit for short-term rental breaches, and the draft framework proposes contracting a third-party data analytics firm to cross-reference platform listings against the registration database. That contract, estimated at between $200,000 and $350,000 annually depending on scope, is yet to go to tender. The Sunshine Coast University Hospital precinct in Birtinya has been cited in planning documents as one area where investor-owned short-term properties are displacing potential long-term rentals for health workers, a politically sensitive detail that has given the reform push extra momentum at the council table.

The Decisions That Will Define the Outcome

Three questions will determine whether the policy has teeth or becomes another set of rules that properties quietly sidestep. First, will the night-cap threshold be set at 60 nights or lower, a decision that determines how many of the estimated 4,200 active short-term listings on the Sunshine Coast actually fall inside the regime. Second, will the state government legislate a mandatory data-sharing obligation on booking platforms, which would make enforcement far more tractable. Third, will council fund the compliance unit from the levy revenue, or dip into general rates, a distinction that affects whether the scheme is self-sustaining or a permanent budget line.

Public submissions on the local planning scheme amendment close on August 15, 2026. Property owners, renters, and tourism operators can lodge responses through the Sunshine Coast Council planning portal or in person at the council's service centre on Nambour Connection Road in Maroochydore. The council's planning and development committee is scheduled to consider submissions in September, with a final vote anticipated before the December council recess.