Short term letting / Air BNB Update.

The Parliamentary Inquiry into the Adequacy of Regulation for Short Term Holiday Letting handed rejected requests that allowed Owners Corporations to prohibit Short Term/Airbnb letting within strata schemes.

If an owners corporation desires to prohibit or at least regulate the management of Airbnb short letting arrangements within its strata scheme the following needs to be considered:

• Will the letting be prohibited by environmental planning laws?  There is likely to be more regulatory controls placed on such arrangements by Local Councils and this may assist owners corporations.
• If planning approval is required by council or a private certifier, the owners corporation’s consent may need to be provided before the Council or a Private Certifier can give consent.
• If an Owners corporation refuses to give consent the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal may overturn that decision.
• Owners corporations, when considering such applications may need to consider:

1. The necessity to upgrade services and amenities within the common property of the strata scheme including fire services, disability services, caparking facilities, etc;
2. The potential for increased cost of maintenance and repair obligations for the owners corporation as a result of increased traffic through the common property areas and damage caused by short term occupants; and
3. Insurance implications for the owners corporation.

• If a lot owner does lodge a development application, the owners corporation and other lot owners can lodge objections against the application.

Sydney leads the way in terms of listings in Australia:

City	Population	Airbnb listings (December 2016)
Greater Sydney	4.9 million	22,000