Short Stay RulesNational comparison
Every short-stay night cap in Australia, in one table
There is no national night cap in Australia. Caps are set state by state and, in a growing number of places, council by council, and they range from 60 nights a year to no limit at all. The tightest cap in the country is Byron Shire's 60 nights for non-hosted properties. The most commonly quoted figure, 180 days, applies in parts of New South Wales but is wrong for several of the places people assume it covers.
Last verified 2026-07-25 against official sources. This table is generated from the same records as the individual jurisdiction pages, so it cannot drift out of step with them. Every figure below links to where it comes from.
This table is built directly from the verified jurisdiction records on this site, so it changes when they change. If a council amends its cap, the fortnightly verification picks it up on that council's page and this table restates it on the next build. That is the opposite of how most comparison tables work, and it is why the two other short-stay databases we checked are still telling hosts that Byron Bay is 180 nights.
| Jurisdiction | State | Limit | Counted over | Applies to | What it actually means | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Byron Shire | NSW | 60 nights/yr | any 365-day period | Non-hosted | Australia's tightest cap, in force since 23 September 2024. Land shown as 'Excluded Land' on the Byron Shire STRA Area Map, the Byron Bay town centre and Brunswick Heads precincts, is not subject to it and stays at 365. source | 2026-07-24 |
| Noosa Shire Council | QLD | 60 nights before approval | calendar year | Hosted | This is not a cap on letting. Letting your principal place of residence on no more than 4 occasions totalling 60 nights a calendar year is accepted development, so no separate planning approval is needed. Going beyond it means the use needs approval, and in residential zones it is classed as inconsistent. source | 2026-07-24 |
| Perth Metropolitan Area | WA | 90 nights, then approval | 12 months from your registration date | Non-hosted | Measured within a 12-month period running from the date of registration, not the calendar year. Hosted STRA has no night limit anywhere in WA. source | 2026-07-24 |
| Western Australia | WA | 90 nights, then approval | 12 months from your registration date | Non-hosted | Applies in the 30 named Perth metropolitan local governments. Going past 90 nights does not make the use unlawful, it means development approval is required to continue. Councils outside the metro list set their own triggers. source | 2026-07-24 |
| Ballina Shire Council | NSW | 180 nights/yr | any 365-day period | Non-hosted | Ballina elected to adopt the 180-day threshold rather than retain 365, which regional councils were able to do. Hosted STRA is uncapped. source | 2026-07-24 |
| Blue Mountains City Council | NSW | 180 nights/yr | any 365-day period | Non-hosted | Blue Mountains is listed by the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure among the Greater Sydney region LGAs carrying the 180-night limit. The council's own bespoke LEP clause 6.29 has been repealed. source | 2026-07-24 |
| Clarence Valley Council | NSW | 180 nights/yr | any 365-day period | Non-hosted | Applies only to land shown edged heavy black on the Clarence Valley STRA Area Map, not the whole LGA. Check your lot against the map. source | 2026-07-24 |
| Greater Sydney (Sydney Metro) | NSW | 180 nights/yr | any 365-day period | Non-hosted | Greater Sydney. A stay of 21 or more consecutive nights to the same guests is excluded from the day count. source | 2026-07-24 |
| Muswellbrook Shire Council | NSW | 180 nights/yr | any 365-day period | Non-hosted | Applies only to specifically mapped land within the shire, not the whole LGA. Whether a given dwelling is capped depends on its exact location against the STRA Area Map. source | 2026-07-24 |
| New South Wales | NSW | 180 nights/yr | any 365-day period | Non-hosted | Only in a 'prescribed area' under SEPP (Housing) 2021 s112. Hosted STRA is uncapped anywhere in NSW, and Byron Shire has its own 60-night cap. source | 2026-07-24 |
| Australian Capital Territory | ACT | No fixed cap | — | Hosted & non-hosted | No statewide night cap on short-term rental bookings has been identified in ACT law, but this remains an absence-of-evidence finding across multiple official sources, not a positive confirmed statement. source | 2026-07-24 |
| Canberra | ACT | No fixed cap | — | Hosted & non-hosted | The ACT has no statutory night cap on short-term letting for either hosted or non-hosted stays. source | 2026-07-24 |
| City of Cessnock (Hunter Valley) | NSW | No fixed cap | — | Hosted & non-hosted | No non-hosted STRA night cap applies in Cessnock LGA. source | 2026-07-24 |
| Shoalhaven | NSW | No fixed cap | — | Hosted & non-hosted | No local or state night cap applies to STRA in Shoalhaven. Properties (hosted and non-hosted) can operate short-term rentals 365 days a year; a single continuous booking cannot exceed roughly 3 months without becoming a residential tenancy (lease). Confirmed directly from the council's live STRA guidance page. source | 2026-07-24 |
| Snowy Monaro Regional Council (Jindabyne) | NSW | No fixed cap | — | Hosted & non-hosted | Snowy Monaro is not one of the areas the state framework caps. The NSW Planning Portal names only Muswellbrook and Clarence Valley as the regional LGAs carrying the 180-day cap. source | 2026-07-24 |
| Northern Territory | NT | No fixed cap | — | Hosted & non-hosted | No statutory cap on the number of nights a property may be let short-term, hosted or non-hosted. source | 2026-07-24 |
| Brisbane (City of Brisbane LGA / Brisbane City Council) | QLD | No fixed cap | — | Hosted & non-hosted | No operating cap. The only day count with legal effect is the 60-day threshold used to move a property into the higher 'Transitory Accommodation' council rates category. source | 2026-07-24 |
| Cairns Region (Cairns Regional Council) | QLD | No fixed cap | — | Hosted & non-hosted | No night cap. Short-term accommodation is its own use category under CairnsPlan 2016 and is assessed against a code when a development application is triggered. | 2026-07-24 |
| Douglas Shire Council (Port Douglas) | QLD | No fixed cap | — | Hosted & non-hosted | No shire-wide night limit. Short-term accommodation is controlled through site-specific material change of use conditions such as maximum guest numbers and parking. source | 2026-07-24 |
| Gold Coast (City of Gold Coast) | QLD | No fixed cap | — | Hosted & non-hosted | Gold Coast imposes no maximum-nights-per-year cap on short-term letting, hosted or non-hosted. source | 2026-07-24 |
| Queensland | QLD | No fixed cap | — | Hosted & non-hosted | No state-imposed night cap for hosted or non-hosted stays in Queensland. source | 2026-07-24 |
| Sunshine Coast Council | QLD | No fixed cap | — | Hosted & non-hosted | No cap under the operative Sunshine Coast Planning Scheme 2014. A 60-night, 4-stay hosted-only threshold appears in the proposed new scheme, which has not been adopted. source | 2026-07-24 |
| Adelaide (City of Adelaide) | SA | No fixed cap | — | Hosted & non-hosted | No hosted or non-hosted night cap applies in SA or the City of Adelaide. source | 2026-07-24 |
| South Australia | SA | No fixed cap | — | Hosted & non-hosted | No state-wide night cap on short-term letting exists in SA for hosted or non-hosted stays. source | 2026-07-24 |
| City of Hobart | TAS | No fixed cap | — | Hosted & non-hosted | No night cap. The levers are the permit test, an application fee of $5,000 for the discretionary pathway, and a draft specific area plan that would require the operator to live on site. source | 2026-07-24 |
| Tasmania | TAS | No fixed cap | — | Hosted & non-hosted | Tasmania regulates by host presence and bedroom count rather than by counting nights. Up to 4 bedrooms, or a whole home let while the owner is temporarily absent, is exempt from a permit. source | 2026-07-24 |
| City of Melbourne | VIC | No fixed cap | — | Hosted & non-hosted | No state-wide or City of Melbourne night cap on short stays applies, hosted or unhosted. source | 2026-07-24 |
| Mornington Peninsula Shire | VIC | No fixed cap | — | Hosted & non-hosted | Short stay rentals are permitted across the Shire but every property must be registered annually under the Short Stay Rental Accommodation Local Law 2018 (as amended 2022), with a mandatory 24/7 Desig | 2026-07-24 |
| Victoria | VIC | No fixed cap | — | Hosted & non-hosted | Victoria has no statewide night cap on short-stay accommodation (hosted or non-hosted) as at July 2026. source | 2026-07-24 |
| City of Busselton | WA | No fixed cap | — | Hosted & non-hosted | No night cap. Unhosted STRA needs City of Busselton development approval, granted initially for 12 months and renewable. | 2026-07-24 |
| Shire of Augusta-Margaret River | WA | No fixed cap | — | Hosted & non-hosted | No night cap. Control is exercised through development approval for Holiday Houses, which is confined to defined coastal settlements and mapped precincts and is granted for limited, renewable terms. | 2026-07-24 |
Sorted tightest limit first. Three different things appear in the Limit column and the difference matters. A hard cap ("60 nights/yr") is a limit you can breach. A threshold ("90 nights, then approval") is not a ban: exceeding it means you need development approval to keep going. An exemption threshold ("60 nights before approval") means staying under it avoids a planning trigger. "No fixed cap" means the jurisdiction regulates by another lever entirely, usually host presence, planning approval or registration. Every one of these figures is recorded by hand from the cited source, never parsed out of a sentence.
Common questions
Is there a national Airbnb night limit in Australia?
No. Australia has no federal short-term rental law. Caps are created by state planning instruments and by individual councils, so the limit depends entirely on the property's address, and two adjoining suburbs can sit under different rules.
What is the strictest short-stay night cap in Australia?
Byron Shire in New South Wales, at 60 nights a year for non-hosted short-term rental accommodation, in force since 23 September 2024. Two mapped precincts, the Byron Bay town centre and Brunswick Heads, are exempt and remain at 365 nights.
Does the 180-day rule apply everywhere in New South Wales?
No, and this is the single most common mistake we see. 180 days is the non-hosted cap in Greater Sydney and some other declared areas, but several regional councils have adopted their own lower caps, and some have no cap at all. Check the specific council rather than assuming the state figure.
Do night caps apply if I live in the property?
Usually not. Most Australian caps only bite on non-hosted stays, where guests have the whole property to themselves. Hosted stays, where the owner or a permanent occupant is present, are typically uncapped. The 'Applies to' column above shows which case each cap covers.
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