Noosa Short Stay Letting Local Law: The Complete Owner's Guide

Noosa was the first council in Queensland to regulate short-term letting with a dedicated local law, and it remains the strictest regime on the Sunshine Coast by some distance. If you own or are buying a holiday property anywhere in Noosa Shire, from Noosa Heads and Sunshine Beach to Tewantin, Cooroy and the hinterland, this is the guide to read first.

It is general information as at September 2026, not legal or planning advice. Fees and penalty values change each July, and the planning scheme changed materially in September 2025.

The two approvals you need to understand

Noosa regulates short-term letting through two separate systems that owners regularly confuse:

1. Planning rights under the Noosa Plan 2020. This decides whether short-term accommodation is a lawful use of your land at all.
2. Local law approval under the Short Stay Letting and Home Hosted Accommodation Local Law. This governs how the property operates day to day: contact person, signage, guest conduct, records and fees.

You need both. Council will not grant a local law approval unless you can first demonstrate lawful planning rights, whether through a development approval, accepted development status, existing use rights or an approval under a superseded planning scheme (Noosa Shire Council, Short Stay Letting).

The local law in detail

What it covers

The Short Stay Letting and Home Hosted Accommodation Local Law was adopted by Noosa Council on 21 October 2021 and commenced on 1 February 2022 (Noosa Shire Council, local law overview). It defines:

• Short stay letting: making premises available to people other than the owner for less than three consecutive months, excluding hotels, motels, backpackers and home hosted accommodation.
• Home hosted accommodation: the same, but where the person in charge lives at the premises during the guest's stay, such as a spare room, studio or bed-and-breakfast arrangement (Noosa Shire Council, Home Hosted Accommodation).

Who needs approval

Approval is mandatory for every existing and new property used for short stay letting or home hosted accommodation. That includes:

• Investment properties let year-round.
• Holiday homes let when the owner is not using them.
• Principal residences let occasionally (up to four occasions and 60 days a year).
• Units in managed complexes.

Exempt: hotels, motels, backpackers, visitor accommodation sites and the Hastings Street mixed use precinct (Noosa Shire Council, Short Stay Letting).

The 24/7 contact person rule

This is the centrepiece of the law. Every approval must nominate a contact person who:

• Is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• Lives or operates within 20 kilometres of the property.
• Responds to each complaint within 30 minutes.
• Is responsible for managing guests and resolving issues on the ground.

The contact person's details go to council. When a neighbour calls the hotline, council relays the complaint to the contact person and starts the clock. Council checks response performance: in 2025 it reported 97 per cent of hotline calls answered within the 30-minute requirement, with three of 136 calls in the reporting period not met and fines issued for each (Noosa Shire Council, Short-Stay Local Law proving effective, August 2025).

For an interstate or overseas owner this rule is effectively a requirement to have a local manager.

Signage

Every approved property must display a permanent, prominent sign at the front of at least 0.2 square metres, with dark lettering at least 50mm high on a light background, showing council's 24/7 complaints hotline number, (07) 5329 6466, and the approval number (Noosa Shire Council, Short Stay Letting). Missing or non-compliant signage was one of the most common reasons for infringement notices in council's early enforcement rounds (Noosa Today, laws make dent in short stay complaint calls).

Code of conduct for guests

Approval conditions include a guest code of conduct which must be displayed in the property. Guests must:

• Maintain residential amenity and avoid nuisance and excessive noise.
• Park vehicles, boats, trailers and jet skis on site, not on the street.
• Not camp in tents, caravans or vehicles on the property.
• Manage pets and dispose of waste properly.
• Not use the property as a party house.

The August 2025 review flagged mandatory display of the code and audits of property managers as improvements council is now pursuing (Noosa Shire Council, August 2025 media release).

Other standing conditions

• Broadform public liability insurance of at least $10 million, maintained at all times.
• Guest register and complaints register kept for at least two years and producible to council within five business days.
• Waste bins managed in line with local collection standards.
• Adequate on-site parking for guest vehicles.

(Noosa Shire Council, Short Stay Letting)

Fees

Council's 2026-27 fees and charges apply from 1 July 2026 (Noosa Shire Council, Short Stay Letting; Short Stay Rules, Noosa Shire):

Budget for the renewal as a fixed annual cost alongside the higher rates that apply to holiday-let property. Fees are revised each July.

The complaints process, step by step

1. A neighbour calls the 24/7 hotline, (07) 5329 6466.
2. Council contacts the nominated contact person.
3. The contact person must respond within 30 minutes and resolve the issue to the standard in the code of conduct.
4. If the response is late or the problem is not resolved, council can investigate, issue a compliance notice, or issue a penalty infringement notice.
5. Repeated or serious breaches trigger a show cause process that can end in suspension or cancellation of the approval. Council can suspend an approval immediately where there is an urgent threat to safety or the environment (Short Stay Rules, Noosa Shire).

Council's data shows the system has changed behaviour. Hotline calls fell from 592 in 2023 to 266 in 2024, and by 2025 council reported that 87 per cent of registered properties had never had a complaint (Noosa Shire Council, August 2025 media release).

Penalties

• Council reported fines of $806 per infringement in its August 2025 review, and a total of 169 infringement notices and 386 compliance notices issued since the law commenced (Noosa Shire Council, August 2025 media release).
• Failing to comply with a compliance notice carries a maximum of five penalty units (Short Stay Rules, Noosa Shire). The Queensland penalty unit rose to $172.70 on 1 July 2026 (Queensland Law Society Proctor), so expect on-the-spot fines to be a little above the $806 figure reported in 2025.
• Beyond fines, the real risk is losing the approval. More than 330 properties have been cancelled or not renewed since 2022 (Noosa Shire Council, August 2025 media release).
• Operating short-term accommodation without planning rights is a separate offence under the Planning Act 2016 with much higher maximum penalties.

What changed and when

Noosa Plan 2020 Amendment No. 2 (26 September 2025)

This is the change that matters most for anyone buying now. Amendment No. 2 reclassified ongoing whole-dwelling short-term accommodation as an inconsistent use in the Low, Medium and High Density Residential zones, the Rural and Rural Residential zones and most centre zones. Inconsistent uses are impact assessable, need a development application with public notification, and are unlikely to be approved. The Tourist Accommodation zone is the main exception, where short-term accommodation remains code assessable (Noosa Shire Council, Fact Sheet 21: Short-term accommodation in residential zones; Noosa Plan 2020 Short-term Accommodation Guide, as amended 26 September 2025).

What is protected:

• Properties with an existing development approval for short-term accommodation.
• Properties with lawful existing use rights that have been continuously exercised.
• Occasional letting of a principal place of residence: up to four occasions and 60 nights per calendar year, a maximum of five guest bedrooms and one self-contained dwelling at a time, which remains accepted development (Noosa Property Scout, short stay accommodation in Noosa).

Third-party commentary describes the practical effect as a cap on new short-stay approvals in the medium and high density residential zones (Lane Property, Noosa Airbnb regulations). The safer way to read it is simpler: if a Noosa house in a residential zone does not already have planning rights for short-term accommodation, assume you will not get them.

Due diligence before you buy or list in Noosa

1. Confirm the zone under Noosa Plan 2020.
2. Ask the vendor or agent for the existing local law approval number and the planning basis for it (development approval, existing use rights or accepted development).
3. Check the approval can be transferred ($273) and that there are no outstanding compliance notices.
4. Read the body corporate by-laws if it is a unit.
5. Line up a manager who will act as the 24/7 contact person and can show you their response record.

How a manager helps in Noosa

In Noosa a manager is not a convenience, it is close to a structural requirement. A competent local manager will:

• Act as the nominated contact person and meet the 30-minute response time.
• Handle the application, renewal and any transfer with council.
• Install and maintain compliant signage and display the code of conduct.
• Keep the guest and complaints registers.
• Screen bookings and set occupancy limits to keep the property off council's radar.
• Hold or arrange the $10 million public liability cover.

Ask any Noosa manager how many hotline calls their portfolio received last year, how many were answered within 30 minutes, and whether any of their properties have had an approval suspended. For the broader regional picture, see our Sunshine Coast short-term rental rules guide.

Compare managers on the Sunshine Coast

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