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@Lady Penelope said:
The term ‘residential’ is a zoning term that merely distinguishes it from the other zones which are mainly either: ‘industrial’, ‘commercial’, or ‘agricultural’.The term ‘residential’ generally does not have the narrow and specific meaning that would be required to ban short term rentals from an area that has been zoned as ‘residential’ …
It depends on the local council and its Local Environment Plan. For instance, City of Sydney (which has the largest concentration of apartments in the country) specifies in its DA’s what they mean by permanent residential (see below).
This all comes back to a discussion elsewhere on this website that the best placed bodies to set the parameters for residential letting may be local councils – as they have the bigger local picture in view – and owners corporations as they have their individual community needs to consider.
Ironically, though, it was the City of Sydney submission to the Coure inquiry that set them off down the dangerous path of “complying developments”.
This is an extract from a recent development approval in Sydney.
RESTRICTION ON RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT
The following restriction applies to buildings approved for residential use:
(a) The accommodation portion of the building (levels 1 to 8) must be used as permanent residential accommodation only and not for the purpose of a hotel, motel, serviced apartments, private hotel, boarding house, tourist accommodation or the like, other than in accordance with the Sydney Local Environmental Plan 2012.
(b) A restrictive covenant is to be registered on the title of the development site in the above terms …
(c) If a unit contains tenants, it must be subject to a residential tenancy agreement for a term of at least three months.
(d) No person can advertise or organise the use of residential apartments approved under this consent for short term accommodation or share accommodation.