Decision details

Moved by Councillor Miller, seconded by Councillor Worling –

It is resolved that:

(A)        Council note, on 17 February 2025, Council unanimously resolved to raise our concerns about the impacts of short-term rental accommodation in the City of Sydney with the NSW Government; and

(B)        Council submit the endorsed motion for consideration at the upcoming 2025 Local Government NSW Annual Conference:

Houses for Homes (Short-Term Rental)

That Local Government NSW advocate to the NSW Government to:

(a)         finalise its review of the (STRA) framework and give Councils tools to better manage the impacts of STRA platforms on the availability of long-term rental housing;

(b)         incentivise homes for long-term over short-term accommodation leasing by agents geared toward maximising profits for "absentee landlords";

(c)         improve the registration and identification processes at the State and Federal level for STRA registrations to enable enforcement;

(d)         close existing loopholes and weaknesses in the registration and enforcement process through strengthening and consolidating data collection across the STRA Registry, Service NSW, and other relevant agencies;

(e)         consider how the NSW Rental Commissioner might take responsibility for the coordination and sharing of accurate data with councils to enable effective real-time short and long term rental information to better inform strategic planning decisions, and information to better inform strategic planning decisions; and

(f)          empower and properly assign resources to the Office of Fair Trading to undertake greater monitoring and enforcement of cap breaches based on better data and registration processes, and that fines for breaches be issued with the intent to unlock the commercial short-term rental market for long-term leases.

Carried unanimously.

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