City of Busselton Council has voted to adopt a new Unhosted Short Term Rental Accommodation Policy as part of the Council’s efforts to support local tourism, while retaining a sense of community in other residential areas.
Mayor, Phill Cronin said the Council considers locations close to beaches, town centres and rural areas to be appropriate places to have tourist accommodation.
“We recognise the value of short stay accommodation as part of the offering for visitors to the City of Busselton, however, in line with community feedback, we have also put in place a range of other ‘non-preferred’ areas where short stay accommodation will not be permitted,” said Mayor Cronin.
“This is to ensure we can maintain a certain level of support and amenity for the local communities living in these residential areas.
“Community feedback from our consultation raised concerns about the impact of short stay accommodation on local residential areas, along with the need to manage the number of properties locally that are used for short stay.
“Approximately 8% of properties within the city are currently registered as unhosted short term rental accommodation and with the current crisis with housing affordability and availability of rental accommodation, we want to do our bit to help alleviate some of these pressures for our local residential communities.
“We do not want to see our evolving local residential communities being negatively impacted through a lack of control on the number of properties being eligible to be used for short stay accommodation. We feel we have struck the right balance with this new Policy.”
Six ‘non-preferred’ areas for Unhosted Short Term Rental Accommodation are included in the Policy and properties in these areas will not be able to be used as short stay accommodation into the future:
- Parts of Dunsborough – Cape Rise Estate located west of Cape Naturaliste Road and Dunsborough East;
- Parts of Vasse and Kealy – south of Bussell Highway/Busselton Bypass;
- Parts of Abbey and Broadwater – south of Bussell Highway and Caves Road and north of the Busselton Bypass;
- Parts of West Busselton and Busselton – south of Bussell Highway and north of the Busselton Bypass;
- Parts of Bovell, including Country Road Estate and Yalyalup, including Provence and Willow Grove;
- Parts of East Busselton, including Geographe – defined by Ford Road to Guerin Street and Marine Terrace to Layman Road/Navigation Crescent.
Property owners with an existing short stay approval in a non-preferred area will be permitted to continue operating, but should their approvals lapse, their property will no longer be able to operate as short stay.
The Council is currently consulting property owners on proposed changes to the Local Planning Scheme in line with the identified areas within this Policy, with a report to be presented to the Council in August 2025.
For further information about this Policy and access to maps showing the preferred and non-preferred areas, visit the City’s website: https://www.busselton.wa.gov.au/business/start-your-business/unhosted-stra.aspx.
