Can I Airbnb a property in City of Busselton?

Unhosted Short-Term Rental Accommodation (replacing the former 'Holiday Home (Single House)' and 'Holiday Home (Grouped/Multiple Dwelling)' land uses under Local Planning Scheme No. 21, following the state LPS Regulations Amendment (Short-Term Rental Accommodation) Regulations 2024) requires the landowner to obtain development approval from the City of Busselton before the dwelling can be used/registered as unhosted STRA. This is a two-step process: (1) City development approval, then (2) registration on the WA Government STRA Register. A development is considered 'substantially commenced' once registered on the WA STRA Register, but any conditions on the City's development approval must also be satisfied first, to the City's satisfaction. Applications are assessed against Local Planning Policy 4.1: Unhosted STRA (adopted by Council 11 June 2025), using an 'Accepted Standard' / 'Performance Criteria' pathway, and all applications are advertised to adjoining/nearby property owners for public comment.

Exceptions: Hosted STRA (on-site host/manager present) is defined separately and is not addressed by this FAQ/regime; the City's dedicated hosted-STRA guidance page could not be retrieved this session (returns no content/404), so this exception, while consistent with the state hosted/unhosted distinction, is not independently confirmed from a hosted-specific City source.

Verbatim from the City's FAQ (v3, 14/05/2026): where development approval is granted for unhosted STRA, an initial 12-month approval period applies, subject to conditions (including the endorsed Operational Management Plan and Code of Conduct). Landowners may then apply to renew for a further 3 years, and for 5-year terms on subsequent renewals. Renewal assessment considers whether the use 'substantially commenced' (i.e. was registered on the WA STRA Register), compliance with prior approval conditions, and any valid complaints received during the previous approval period, including a review of booking/occupant numbers recorded on the WA STRA Register against the approved occupant cap. ADDED 10/09/2026 from the City's business page: any approval granted after January 2025 carries an expiry date, the landowner is responsible for keeping a valid approval in place, and a new development application to renew must be lodged at least 90 days before the current approval expires. Operating after expiry without a valid approval is described as a breach of the Planning and Development Act 2005 that may result in enforcement or compliance action. FAQ v5 (09/09/2026) restates the 12-month, then 3-year, then 5-year structure unchanged.

Confirmed 10/09/2026 on the City of Busselton Planning Fees page, which lists 'Retrospective Development Approval: Fee as above + twice that amount as penalty' alongside 'Change of Use - including Unhosted Short-Term Rental Accommodation (existing Dwelling) $295.00' and 'Neighbour Consultation (in addition to application fee) $142.80'. The unhosted-STRA business page carried the same figures and the same retrospective wording, labelled 2025/26, until a rewrite seen on 10/09/2026; it now says every unhosted STRA application pays 'the development application fee for a change of use as well as the neighbour consultation fee as listed on the City's Planning Fees page', which is why this rule now cites that page. The Planning Fees page states no financial year; the figures are unchanged from the 2025/26 ones. The business page separately warns that operating without a valid development approval is a breach of the Planning and Development Act 2005 and may result in enforcement or compliance action. This is a local council charge separate from any WA state-level penalties for operating unregistered on the state STRA Register.

Both the City's unhosted-STRA business page and FAQ v5 (09/09/2026), read 10/09/2026, carry the same notice: 'once development approval is granted, the Unhosted STRA Differential Rating Category will be applied in the next financial year'. To return to the Residential Gross Rental Value rating category the owner must cease operating, cancel the STRA Register registration with the state department and cancel the development approval with the City; where the approval has not been cancelled before 1 July the rating category cannot change during that financial year unless the valuation changes, so the adjustment takes effect the following year. The rate in the dollar and minimum payment for the category are published in the City's rates material, which was not read this pass, so no dollar figure is stated here.

Amendment No. 61 to City of Busselton Local Planning Scheme No. 21 was approved by the Minister for Planning on 4 May 2026 and gazetted 12 May 2026 (in force from that date). Verbatim from the City's FAQ: it (i) aligned Schedule 1 Interpretations with the land-use terms in the Planning and Development (Local Planning Schemes) Regulations 2015, (ii) amended Table 1: Zoning Table to designate 'Unhosted Short-Term Rental Accommodation' as an 'X' (not permitted) use in all zones, and (iii) introduced new Additional Use 'A87', which designates unhosted STRA as an 'A' use (may be considered, where a dwelling is otherwise permitted) within all areas A87 applies. A87 areas are the inverse of the 'non-preferred areas' mapped in Appendix 1 of Local Planning Policy 4.1. If a property sits inside a non-preferred area, an unhosted STRA application will not be accepted at all. Non-preferred areas were first introduced when LPP 4.1 was adopted 11 June 2025; before Amendment 61 they were a policy 'not supported' position, but are now a hard Scheme-level prohibition. UPDATE 10/09/2026: FAQ v5 (version date 09/09/2026) and the City's unhosted-STRA business page no longer use the term 'non-preferred areas' at all. Both now say the same thing more directly: where A87 applies the City may consider an application (an 'A' use, advertised under clause 64 of the Deemed Provisions); where it does not, unhosted STRA is an 'X' use and an application cannot be accepted or approved. The business page links a 'Map of areas where Additional Use A87 does not apply', and the FAQ points to Appendix 1 of LPP 4.1 for the same map. The Amendment 61 approval and gazettal dates above came from FAQ v3 (14/05/2026); v5 no longer recites that history.

Exceptions: Development approvals for holiday homes/unhosted STRA granted before 29 January 2025 in areas where A87 now does not apply were mostly not time-limited and retain non-conforming-use rights under the LPS Regulations, provided the use stays registered on the state STRA Register and does not cease operating for more than 6 months (after which the rights may be lost). Reconfirmed in FAQ v5 (09/09/2026).

Confirmed verbatim on the City's unhosted-STRA business page (fetched directly, quoted twice for consistency): 'Grouped and multiple dwellings are limited to a maximum of 6 occupants'; 'Single houses in the Residential or Rural Residential zones are limited to a maximum of 8 occupants'; 'the maximum number of occupants cannot exceed 12'. The actual permitted number for a given property is set by the development approval having regard to lot size, number of bedrooms/bathrooms and on-site parking. Compliance is checked at renewal time by cross-referencing bookings recorded on the WA STRA Register.

Confirmed verbatim from the City's FAQ: LPP 4.1 requires every unhosted STRA development approval to be conditioned on an endorsed Operational Management Plan and Code of Conduct. Where the property falls within a designated Bushfire Prone Area on the DFES Map of Bushfire Prone Areas, a Bushfire Emergency Plan is also required. The nominated property manager's contact details must be displayed on an on-site sign (max area 0.2 m²), must be contactable 24 hours a day, and must respond to and address any reported breach (noise, occupant numbers, parking, waste) within 12 hours; complaints should also be lodged with the City via its online report-it system so they are considered at renewal. UPDATE 10/09/2026: FAQ v5 (09/09/2026) keeps the Operational Management Plan and Code of Conduct conditions, the 24-hour manager contact and the 12-hour response requirement, but no longer mentions the Bushfire Emergency Plan or the sign size. The Bushfire Emergency Plan requirement now sits on the City's business page instead: since State Planning Policy 3.7 took effect on 18 November 2024 a Bushfire Management Plan is no longer required, but a Bushfire Emergency Plan prepared by an accredited level 2 or 3 bushfire practitioner is. The 0.2 m2 sign figure came from FAQ v3 and LPP 4.1 itself; it has not been re-read this pass.

Confirmed verbatim on the City's unhosted-STRA business page: properties must be 'connected to reticulated water or serviced by a minimum 135,000 litre potable water tank'; must be 'connected to reticulated sewerage or adequate on-site effluent disposal system'; and must be 'currently serviced by the City's kerbside waste collection or where kerbside collection is not available, alternate waste management will be considered'.