Can I short-term rent 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.

2025/26 City of Busselton fees for unhosted STRA, confirmed verbatim: development application fee $295, advertising/referral fee $142.80 (both explicitly labelled '2025/26 financial year' on the City's page, though no specific effective day is stated, 1 July 2025 is inferred as the standard WA council fee-schedule start). Where an unhosted STRA has been operating without prior development approval, the page states: 'Any Unhosted STRA which has commenced operating prior to obtaining development approval will incur an additional retrospective fee, Development Application Fee + twice that amount as penalty', i.e. total of three times the standard fee. This is a local council penalty separate from any WA state-level penalties for operating unregistered on the state STRA Register.

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.

Exceptions: Development approvals for holiday homes/unhosted STRA granted before 29 January 2025 in what are now non-preferred areas 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).

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.

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'.