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Thanks JT.
To add some info from various Qld legal perspective which may (or may not) be relevant to NSW see below from Hynes Legal:
https://hyneslegal.com.au/news/can-aqueensland-body-corporate-stop-airbnb-nar-439
and from Hopgood Ganim Lawyers:
There have been several Qld Tribunal decisions on the subject of short term letting. Precedents have been set. I don’t believe that NSW Tribunals yet have had the opportunity to deal with this subject in such a substantial way as Qld has. Whether NSW Tribunal decisions go the way of QLD … only time will tell.
Tribunals in Qld have generally relied on the plain English meaning of ‘residential purposes’ to include any types of residential purpose, including short and long term letting and permanent residency. It has been held that limiting the type of residential use of a lot to only long term letting or permanent residency is contrary to the BCCMA.
Various solicitors in Qld have expressed the view that short term letting (including in the context of Airbnb and Stayz) is a type of residential use.
In Qld the ordinary meaning of ‘residential use’ appears to be to distinguish use of the unit as a dwelling from use of the unit for commercial or industrial purposes, rather than to distinguish between the length of stay.
One Adjudicator stated ” People holidaying in a unit would be the occupiers of the unit and be putting the unit to a ‘residential use’, even if they only had a short term lease. Also, even if the owner of the unit was running a commercial enterprise involving the letting out of the unit, the people holidaying in the unit would be putting the unit to a residential rather than a commercial or industrial use.”
The metaphorical ‘genie is now out of the bottle’ in Qld. It will interesting to see if the NSW ‘genie’ can be contained.