Can I short-term rent in Canberra?

Unlike NSW's STRA Register or WA's mandatory register, the ACT does not require individual hosts/property owners to register or license a short-term rental property. The ACT Government has repeatedly stated (2023-2024) it saw insufficient evidence to justify a host registration/cap scheme, though it agreed to keep reviewing the sector. The only registration obligation in the ACT relates to the levy: booking service providers (e.g. Airbnb, Stayz) must register with the ACT Revenue Office before the end of the first quarter in which the levy becomes payable, this is a platform obligation, not a host obligation.

Exceptions: Booking service providers must register for levy purposes even though hosts do not need to register the property itself.

Under the Territory Plan 2023 (NI2023-540), Part E01, Residential Zones Policy sets out a Land Use Table for RZ1-RZ5 listing every permitted ("Y") land use in each zone; the table's own governing text states "Uses not listed in the table are prohibited." "Commercial accommodation use" (and its component "commercial accommodation unit") is NOT listed as a permitted use in RZ1, RZ2, RZ3, RZ4 or RZ5, confirmed by direct primary-source retrieval of the Land Use Table text on 24 July 2026. The Territory Plan Dictionary (Part G, NI2023-540) defines "commercial accommodation unit" as "a room or suite of rooms that is made available on a commercial basis for short-term accommodation... may comprise a dwelling but not a room or suite of rooms within a dwelling," and lists "Short-term rental accommodation" as an explicit example use, confirming that whole-dwelling STR letting (the dominant Airbnb/Stayz model) falls within this prohibited-in-residential-zones category. By contrast, "Guest house", defined separately as one or more commercial accommodation units where shared facilities and services (meals, laundry) are provided to occupants but not to non-occupant members of the public, IS listed as a permitted "Y" use in all of RZ1-RZ5; this preserves traditional hosted B&B/homestay-style accommodation while excluding self-contained, unhosted short-term letting. "Boarding house" (principal residence of 3+ months) is also permitted but is not STR-relevant. In practice, breaches are enforced reactively: the Territory (as Crown lessor) can investigate a suspected Crown lease/zoning breach and issue a Controlled Activity Order or, in serious/repeated cases, pursue lease termination, but enforcement is complaint-driven and described by ACT planning lawyers as rare in relation to Airbnb-style letting. This claim, previously flagged as unverifiable because earlier PDF fetch attempts returned non-machine-readable binary content, was resolved on 24 July 2026 by extracting the PDF's actual text (Part E01 Land Use Table and Part G Dictionary definitions) directly from legislation.act.gov.au.

Exceptions: Guest house use (one or more commercial accommodation units with shared meals/laundry services provided to occupants, but not to non-occupant members of the public) is a permitted "Y" use in RZ1-RZ5, this covers traditional hosted B&B/homestay-style accommodation. Boarding houses (3+ month residence) are separately permitted and not STR-relevant.

The levy is 5% of the total booking amount (accommodation, booking/cleaning/pet fees, GST) for stays of up to 28 continuous nights, legislated under the Short-Term Rental Accommodation Levy Act 2025. It is payable by the booking service provider (e.g. Airbnb, Stayz), not the host, and does not apply to direct owner bookings. Hosted stays (owner/occupant present during the stay) are exempt, as are hotels, motels, serviced apartment complexes with on-site reception, caravan parks and hostels, the ACT Government's own media release explicitly states the levy "applies specifically to un-hosted accommodation." There is no specific principal-place-of-residence exemption. The rate is legislated to rise to 7.5% from 1 July 2027. Registration and quarterly BAS-style returns (due 30 days after each quarter) are required of booking service providers. Both facts (rate/dates and un-hosted scope) were directly confirmed against the primary source.

Exceptions: Hosted stays, hotels/motels/hostels/caravan parks/serviced apartment complexes with reception, direct (non-platform) bookings.

Each unit's Crown Lease (Form 4) sets the permitted use of the land/building; many residential unit plans are restricted to "single dwelling residential use only," and short-term letting that breaches the Territory Plan's zoning (see the planning_approval rule) would typically also breach this lease condition. Separately, Schedule 1 (Default rules) of the Unit Titles (Management) Regulation 2011 (SL2011-39), made under the Unit Titles (Management) Act 2011 (A2011-41), sets out default rule 1.11 "Illegal use of unit", which states verbatim: "A unit owner must not use the unit, or permit it to be used, to contravene a law in force in the ACT." This rule and its exact wording were confirmed on 24 July 2026 by direct primary-source retrieval of the current republished Regulation (Republication No 6) from legislation.act.gov.au; the Regulation's amendment history shows rule 1.11 has not been amended since the Regulation's original commencement on 30 March 2012. An owners corporation can rely on default rule 1.11 (enforced via ACAT dispute-resolution action under the Act) against a unit owner whose short-term letting breaches the Territory Plan or their Crown lease. Owners corporations may adopt alternative/additional rules by special resolution, but default rule 1.11 itself cannot be modified (Regulation s7B(1)(a) restricts alternative rules to modifying only rules 1.4, 1.5 and 1.6). Note: a specific 2025 ACAT case referenced only in background research (a unit owner allegedly operating a 16-bed hostel, ordered to cease + pay costs of ~$18,850) is sourced only to a law firm's website (Proctor Legal); a further targeted search for the case on ACAT's own decisions database and AustLII did not locate it. It is NOT used as a citation here and should not be published as a standalone fact until located on ACAT's own decisions database.

Exceptions: Depends on the specific Crown lease/Form 4 wording for each unit plan and whether the owners corporation has adopted alternative/additional rules (which cannot modify default rule 1.11 itself), restrictions are not uniform across all ACT unit titles, and default rule 1.11 requires a breach of an underlying law (e.g. Territory Plan/Crown lease) to bite; it does not independently prohibit short-term letting.