Brisbane just became one of the easiest cities in Australia to run a short-stay property in. No permit, no register, no state levy, no night cap, and as of 12 May 2026, no new compliance scheme on the way either. Owners sitting on a well-located property who’ve been on the fence about short-stay now have one less reason to wait. This guide covers what actually changed, why Brisbane compares so well to other capitals right now, and what to have in place so you can enjoy the upside without giving it a second thought.

What Lord Mayor Schrinner announced on 12 May 2026
Brisbane’s Short Stay Accommodation Local Law 2025 was due to start on 1 July 2026. On 12 May, Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner announced it would not proceed “at this time,” citing federal tax uncertainty and interest-rate pressure as the reason. That announcement landed the same evening as the 2026-27 Federal Budget, which flagged phased changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. Council’s read was straightforward: this wasn’t the moment to add a new compliance layer on top of a sector that was already working well.

“Not proceeding at this time” leaves the door open for the law to return eventually, but there’s no indication of that happening soon, and nothing for a current or prospective host to prepare for in the meantime.

Where the permit idea actually came from
Some context helps here. In January 2026, Council wrote to a small group of properties (a few hundred, concentrated in low-density suburban zones) about development approval, as part of enforcing rules that already existed under City Plan 2014. That was the trigger for the broader permit law proposal that followed. It’s worth knowing purely for context: the permit scheme was always aimed at a narrow slice of suburban properties without proper approvals, not at short-stay letting generally, which is exactly why the sub-1% dwelling-share figure Council kept citing made the case for pausing it so easily.

What the proposed scheme would have added
The draft law, published December 2025, would have introduced an annual permit for whole-dwelling short-stay properties, a 24/7 contact requirement, and additional noise and waste conditions layered on top of existing rules. None of that is happening. None of it needs to be built, staffed, or paid for. It worth flagging however that Bedspoke already employs 24/7 guest support, a strict code of conduct on noise and nuisance, as well as stringent safety precautions including annual smoke alarm testing and more. This is just good management.

The research Council was actually working from
Council’s Taskforce leaned on a figure that’s easy to skim past: short-stay accommodation makes up less than 1% of Brisbane’s housing stock. That number didn’t come from Council itself. It traces back to a 2023 review by a team of University of Queensland academics (Professors Bond, Rambaldi, Corcoran, Sigler and Dr Zou), commissioned by the state government independently of Brisbane City Council, which found Brisbane’s short-stay sector sits at around 0.4% of available dwellings, concentrated in tourism precincts, with little measurable effect on rental affordability. That’s an independent academic finding, not an industry talking point, and it’s the real foundation under Council’s decision to treat the permit scheme as unnecessary friction rather than a genuine fix for anything.

The historical record: these restrictions don’t do what they promise
Brisbane isn’t the first place to weigh this trade-off, and the results elsewhere are consistent enough to be worth knowing before assuming any future scheme would actually help anyone.

New York City brought in one of the strictest short-term rental laws in the world with Local Law 18 in September 2023, cutting active listings by roughly 90%. A peer-reviewed study published in the European Journal of Political Economy used a synthetic difference-in-differences approach and found the ban lifted average hotel prices by around $14 to $19 a night and added an estimated $2.1 to $2.9 billion to hotel industry revenue in the first eighteen months, while housing vacancy rates barely moved. Separate reporting two years on found citywide rents had risen over 8% and hotel prices nearly 13%, with no measurable improvement in housing availability.

Byron Bay tightened its short-term rental cap to 60 days a year in September 2024, specifically to push properties back into long-term rental. An independent analysis by Frontier Economics (commissioned by Airbnb, worth noting given the source, though its use of public rental bond data is checkable) found no increase in long-term rental listings a year on, with average weekly rent up 7% to a record high over the same period.

Neither case proves a cap or permit scheme could never work anywhere. What both show, consistently, is the same pattern Brisbane’s own research points to: restricting short-stay supply tends to raise accommodation costs for visitors and squeeze small operators, without the promised increase in long-term rental stock actually showing up. That’s a genuinely useful data point for any Brisbane owner wondering whether to take the paused scheme seriously as a future risk, or a state government elsewhere weighing up something similar.

Where Bedspoke stands on regulation
We’re not anti-regulation, and we’d rather be upfront about that than pretend otherwise. Short-stay letting works best long-term when it’s clearly a legitimate, professional part of the housing market rather than a grey area, and that means having less room for operators who cut corners on safety or treat neighbours as an afterthought. We’ve consistently supported a proper code of conduct for operators, enforceable safety standards including smoke alarm compliance, and real nuisance and noise provisions with teeth. Those raise the floor for everyone and they’re worth having.

What the evidence above argues against is the blunter tools: permit caps, annual registration bureaucracies, and night limits designed to shrink supply rather than lift standards. Brisbane’s proposed scheme leaned toward the latter, on the back of a problem its own commissioned research said was small to begin with. Pausing it was the right call, and the case for reviving it in its current form isn’t strong.

How Brisbane actually compares right now
This is the part worth putting numbers to. Victoria’s Short Stay Levy Act 2025 puts a 7.5% levy on short-stay booking fees under 28 nights. NSW caps non-hosted whole-dwelling short-term rental at 180 nights a year across Greater Sydney, tighter again in Byron Shire. Brisbane has no equivalent levy, no statewide night cap, and as of 12 May, no permit scheme on the way. For a property in a good location, that’s a meaningfully cleaner runway than most other Australian capitals offer right now, and it’s a runway backed by evidence rather than just good timing.

For an owner weighing where to put the next property, or whether to convert an existing one, Brisbane’s case has quietly gotten stronger. Melbourne stock still makes sense on plenty of fundamentals, and the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast carry their own tourism drivers independent of any of this, but the regulatory-risk comparison across the four markets has shifted, and it’s shifted in Brisbane’s favour.

Does the pause make short-stay the better call for your property?
For plenty of Brisbane owners, yes, more clearly than it did in April. Short-stay yield on a well-located property has typically outperformed a comparable long-term lease by a wide margin, and the compliance overhead the permit scheme would have added is now off the table entirely, not just delayed. That’s real money that stays in the return column instead of going toward permit fees and a 24/7 contact contract.

The properties where it makes the most sense are the ones in strong tourism and lifestyle locations with development approval already sorted or straightforward to obtain. It’s a quick check, not a reason to hold off.

Keeping good records, without making it a project
Council has been clear that the sub-1% dwelling share and the low complaint count are what made pausing the permit law an easy call. Keeping your own numbers on the right side of that ledger is simple and genuinely low-effort: a running incident log (most properties will only ever have one or two entries every few years), verification of each guest before handing over the keys, and a strong and well-enforced code of conduct. None of this costs anything extra if your property is already being managed properly. It’s just what good management looks like day to day.

Will the permit scheme come back?
Possibly, eventually, though there’s nothing on the horizon suggesting soon, and the evidence base for it has gotten weaker rather than stronger. The most plausible trigger, on Council’s own reasoning, would be a meaningful and sustained rise in complaints well above the current level, which simply isn’t the trend right now. Worth a glance at Council’s Short Stay Accommodation Local Law 2025 page every few months, more out of interest than concern.

Frequently asked questions

• Is short-stay letting legal in Brisbane right now?
  Yes. There’s no permit requirement, no state levy, and no night cap. The main things to have sorted are development approval where your zone requires it (and perhaps a well-reviewed property manager to take care of the daily running around).
• Does research actually support restricting short-stay accommodation?
  Not much of it, so far. A 2023 University of Queensland review found short-stay has little effect on Brisbane rental affordability, and real-world caps in New York and Byron Bay have raised visitor accommodation costs without measurably increasing long-term rental supply.
• How does Brisbane compare to other Australian capitals for short-stay?
  Very favourably. Victoria applies a 7.5% short-stay levy and NSW caps non-hosted whole-dwelling letting at 180 nights a year in Greater Sydney, tighter still in Byron Shire. Brisbane has neither, and its permit scheme is now paused.

Conclusion
Brisbane’s short-stay sector just had its regulatory picture get simpler, not more complicated, and the evidence backs that decision up. Independent research puts short-stay’s effect on rental affordability at close to nil, and the real-world experience of places that did impose caps and bans shows the same pattern: higher costs for visitors, no meaningful gain in long-term rental stock. For owners weighing whether short-stay is worth it, the numbers, and the evidence, just got a little more compelling.

If you want a straight read on what your specific property could bring in as a short-stay listing, that’s an easy conversation to have. Get in touch with us for a free assessment, no pressure and no obligation attached.