Victoria has no night cap on short stays

There is no cap

No Victorian statute or statewide planning provision limits the number of nights a dwelling may be let as short-stay accommodation. Not for non-hosted letting, not for hosted letting, and not by property type.

The instrument people reach for is the Short Stay Levy Act 2024, and it is a taxing Act. It defines a short stay, sets a rate, allocates the obligation to remit between booking platforms and direct-booking owners, and lists exemptions. It does not restrict how often a property may be let, and the State Revenue Office guidance that administers it contains no night limit either. The only threshold in the levy regime is a $75,000 booking-fee figure that decides whether you lodge quarterly or annually, which is a lodgement frequency, not a permission to operate.

Sources: Short Stay Levy Act 2024 (Vic), as made, Understanding the short stay levy, State Revenue Office Victoria

Where the 180 nights actually comes from

New South Wales. Under State Environmental Planning Policy (Housing) 2021, non-hosted short-term rental accommodation in a prescribed area is capped at 180 days in a 365-day period. Hosted letting is uncapped anywhere in NSW, and Byron Shire has since gone further with a 60-night cap of its own.

That is a real rule, correctly stated, in the wrong state. It travels because national summaries compress eight jurisdictions into one table and a blank cell looks like an error to whoever writes the next version.

Sources: State Environmental Planning Policy (Housing) 2021 (NSW)

What Victoria actually regulates

Three levers, none of them a night count.

A statewide council registration and day-cap model has been discussed publicly but is not enacted law. Until it is, it does not apply to anyone.

Sources: Understanding the short stay levy, State Revenue Office Victoria, Making rules to ban short stay accommodation, Consumer Affairs Victoria

Two exemptions worth knowing, both about your own home

The levy does not apply to a short stay in a property that is the principal place of residence of the owner or the renter. Rooming houses, retirement villages, residential care facilities, supported residential services and student accommodation connected to an educational institution are also outside the levy.

The owners corporation power carries a matching limit: a ban rule cannot apply to a lot that is the lot owner's or occupier's principal place of residence. So a resident letting their own apartment while away is protected from the ban in a way an investor-owned lot next door is not.

Between them these two exemptions mean the Victorian regime bears far more heavily on investment stock than on people letting the home they live in, which is a design choice worth understanding before you plan around it.

Sources: Understanding the short stay levy, State Revenue Office Victoria, Making rules to ban short stay accommodation, Consumer Affairs Victoria

What to check instead of a night count

• If the property is in an owners corporation, read the rules before anything else. A 75% special resolution can end the exercise, and it is not a night limit you can manage around.
• Work out whether the property is your principal place of residence for levy purposes. That single fact decides whether 7.5% applies at all.
• If you take direct bookings rather than going through a platform, register with the State Revenue Office. The remittance obligation is yours, not a platform's.
• Check your council's planning scheme for how it treats the use. There is no statewide answer, and this is where a Victorian restriction is most likely to be found.
• Do not build a night counter for Victoria. There is nothing to count. Track booking fees instead, because that is what the levy is calculated on.

Common questions

Related

• Victoria state framework
• Melbourne
• New South Wales, where the 180 nights comes from
• WA's 90-night rule started in 2024, not 2026