Airbnb managers in Kawana Waters

Short-term letting in Kawana Waters

Kawana Waters covers the string of suburbs between Mooloolaba and Caloundra, including Buddina, Minyama, Parrearra, Warana, Bokarina, Wurtulla and Birtinya. It has two quite different short-stay markets. On the coastal strip the stock is beach houses and duplexes in Buddina and Warana, newer townhouses and apartments in the Bokarina Beach precinct, and canal homes with pontoons in Minyama and Parrearra. Inland at Birtinya, the Sunshine Coast University Hospital, the private hospital and the Kawana sports precinct generate demand for short medical, family and team stays that has little to do with the beach.

That second market matters for owners. Hospital-related bookings run year round, favour ground-floor and accessible properties, and often extend to a week or more. Beach demand follows the usual pattern of Christmas to January, Easter and the June to July school holidays, with Sunshine Coast Stadium events and regional sporting carnivals adding weekend spikes. Guests are a blend of Brisbane families, relatives of patients, visiting medical staff and sporting groups.

Kawana Waters is in Sunshine Coast Council. There is no registration scheme, but dwellings let for 28 days or less sit in the transitory accommodation rate category, with houses carrying a larger 2026-27 increase than units. Much of the older canal and beach housing is in low density residential zones under the Sunshine Coast Planning Scheme 2014, so a post-2014 house may need approval, while the Bokarina and Birtinya apartments are generally in zones where short stays are accepted.

Sunshine Coast Airport is around 25 minutes away. Management fees across the coast typically run 15 to 25 per cent of bookings and vary with the services provided.