Hobart moves to block new whole-home short stays

On 26 August 2026, Hobart City Council's planning authority committee voted 7 to 3 to forward a draft planning scheme amendment to the Tasmanian Planning Commission for independent assessment. If the commission approves it and the responsible Minister agrees, no new whole-home short-stay permits will issue in Hobart's residential zones.

This is a significant step. It is not a done deal.

What the amendment proposes

The amendment targets three zones: Inner Residential, General Residential and Low Density Residential. Together these cover roughly 90% of dwellings in the City of Hobart, around 20,000 homes, according to ABC News reporting from August 2026.

Under the proposal, new whole-home short-stay permits would not be available in those zones. Existing permits would be unaffected. Home-sharing, where the owner is present and rents out a room or part of the home, would remain permitted. Owners letting their home while they travel would also be exempt. The CBD, mixed-use areas and Battery Point, which is already subject to its own short-stay rules, are outside the amendment's scope.

The council ran a 28-day public exhibition and received more than 50 submissions. Fifteen were in support and 41 in opposition. That split reflects genuinely competing interests: hosts who rely on short-stay income on one side, and renters and housing advocates pointing to the city's constrained long-term rental market on the other.

The figures behind that debate are striking. As of November 2025, around 840 entire homes in the Hobart local government area were listed as short-stay accommodation, representing 8.8% of private rental dwellings, according to ABC News. That compares to 2.2% in the City of Sydney and 4.8% in the City of Melbourne. Research cited by the council found that roughly half of properties that had recently converted to short-stay had previously been in the long-term rental market, during a period when Hobart's vacancy rate was sitting between 0.5% and 0.7%, as reported by Pulse Tasmania.

What happens next, and what is still uncertain

The Tasmanian Planning Commission is not a rubber stamp. The same body rejected at least two earlier Hobart short-stay amendments, with one ground being insufficient public consultation. This amendment has gone through that process, which may improve its prospects, but approval is not guaranteed. Once the commission completes its assessment, including a public hearing stage, it makes a recommendation to the relevant Minister. The Minister makes the final decision. No timeline for that process has been confirmed publicly.

While the planning amendment works through the commission, other regulatory changes are also in motion. A Short Stay Levy Bill that would impose a 5% charge on stays of fewer than 28 nights passed the Tasmanian House of Assembly in May 2026, according to Parliament of Tasmania records. As of early September 2026, the bill had completed committee stage in the Legislative Council with amendments but had not yet received royal assent. It is not yet law, and its final form could differ from what the lower house passed.

The cost environment for short-stay operators has already shifted regardless of those outcomes. Hobart City Council raised the change-of-use permit fee for short-stay applications from $435 to $5,000 in April 2026, as reported by Pulse Tasmania. A differential rating arrangement that doubled rates for short-stay properties has been in place since 2023. Airbnb lodged a complaint with the Tasmanian Ombudsman about those two measures in late August, alleging proper process was not followed. That complaint concerns rates and permit fees, not the planning amendment, and does not pause the commission's process.

What this means for property owners

For owners currently operating short-stay accommodation in Hobart's residential zones, the planning amendment does not touch existing permits. The live question is whether the accumulating cost changes, higher fees, doubled rates and a possible levy, alter the return comparison against long-term leasing. That arithmetic is worth running now, before further decisions are made on either side of the regulatory debate.

For owners weighing a switch from long-term to short-stay letting in a residential zone, the window to apply under current rules remains open while the commission process runs. No one can say how long that will take or what the outcome will be. At both council and state level, the regulatory direction has been consistently toward returning whole homes to the long-term rental pool, even if the specific instruments remain unresolved.

If you are thinking through how your property fits the current rental market, a free rental appraisal is a practical place to start. For questions about what professional property management looks like in this environment, we are happy to talk.