What is it?
The Short Term Rental Accommodation framework was implemented by the NSW government to set standards on fire safety, a government run register and compliments the mandatory code of conduct and changes to strata legislation.
Short Term Rental Accommodation for the purpose of these changes is “Section 54A of the Fair Trading Act 1987 defines short-term rental accommodation arrangement as follows: a commercial arrangement for giving a person the right to occupy residential premises for a period of not more than 3 months at any one time”.
What are the main changes?
The legislation is quite straight forward and provides hosts, managers and guests with a relatively easy to understand how it affects them. Some of the changes include:
- Adherence to a fire safety standard – Click here
- A register for all NSW Short term rentals (Airbnbs) and platforms requiring it for any listing
- Mandatory Code of Conduct – Click here
- An Exclusions register – Property, hosts, agents and guests
- Requirement on hosts to provide emergency information
- A new framework limiting non-hosted to 180 days a year in greater Sydney.
- Hosted simply is when the host resides on the premises (this includes granny flats)
- non-hosted is when full premises are being rented out
What else do you need to know?
Fair Trading NSW has been very helpful in answering any questions you may have. These changes form part of good practice for a STRA Manager or Airbnb Management business however the limited short term nights will affect properties that are more inclined towards shorter stays.
There are some guides provided by the government to assist:
How can we assist?
Feel free to reach out to us if you are a host that currently has an Airbnb listed in Sydney or areas of NSW. We can assist where we can or guide you to guides produced by the government to assist hosts, alternatively we can recommend you to the right agency.
We also have strategies in place to ensure Property Owners can maximise their rental return. This includes with the 180 day cap and still have their property rented out for the year in some format.
Contact us to find out more.
