Gold Coast Renters and Hosts at Odds as Short-Term Rental Rules Tighten

The squeeze is being felt on both ends of the Esplanade. Gold Coast residents living alongside short-term rental properties say their streets have changed dramatically over the past two years, as investor-owned apartments cycle through tourist bookings at rates that push long-term renters further from the beachside suburbs they've called home for decades.

Queensland's short-term rental regulation framework, which came into effect in late 2023 under the state's Planning Act amendments, was supposed to give local councils more muscle to manage the proliferation of platforms like Airbnb and Stayz. For many Gold Coast households, the changes haven't moved fast enough, or gone far enough.

The issue has sharpened heading into the second half of 2026, with Gold Coast City Council currently reviewing its short-term accommodation policy ahead of projected demand surges linked to the 2032 Brisbane Olympics. Two venues, the Coomera Indoor Sports Centre and Robina Stadium, are locked in as Olympic sites, and property investors have been moving aggressively into surrounding suburbs in anticipation of the uplift.

Broadbeach and Burleigh Bearing the Brunt

In Broadbeach, residents near the Oracle towers and along Surf Parade describe a building stock that is increasingly unavailable to long-term tenants. Similar concerns have surfaced in Burleigh Heads, where character homes within walking distance of James Street have been converted to full-time tourist accommodation. The Miami to Palm Beach corridor, already under development pressure from coastal approvals granted over the past three years, is now seeing rental vacancy rates that community advocates say are effectively zero for affordable stock.

Gold Coast's rental vacancy rate sat at approximately 0.8 per cent as of the March 2026 quarter, according to data published by the Real Estate Institute of Queensland, well below the 2.5 per cent threshold economists generally consider a balanced market. Median weekly rents for a two-bedroom unit in suburbs like Mermaid Beach and Nobby Beach have climbed past $750 in recent listings, a figure that community housing organisations say excludes the bulk of essential workers who staff the city's hospitality, retail and construction sectors.

The Gold Coast Local Housing Action Group, which operates out of a community centre in Southport, has been compiling resident submissions to present to council during the current policy review. The group says it received more than 200 individual submissions between April and June 2026 from people identifying as displaced long-term tenants. A recurring theme in those submissions, the group says, is the lack of accessible one and two-bedroom rentals within 10 kilometres of the CBD.

Hosts Argue Economic Case as Council Weighs Options

Short-term rental hosts and property managers aren't uniformly unsympathetic to those concerns, but many argue that sweeping restrictions would undercut a legitimate part of the city's tourism economy. The Gold Coast Tourism Bureau has previously noted that visitor accommodation demand across the city peaks significantly during school holidays and major events, periods when the existing hotel and motel stock routinely fills. The bureau's figures for the Easter 2026 period showed average nightly accommodation rates exceeding $300 across the central Gold Coast strip.

Council is currently weighing several options including a registration scheme for all short-term rental properties, a cap on the number of nights a property can be let per calendar year, and a levy structure that would direct funds toward social housing supply. None of those measures has been formally adopted. A council spokesperson confirmed the review is ongoing but declined to provide a timeline for a final decision.

For residents tracking the process, the next opportunity for public input is the Gold Coast City Council Planning and Environment Committee meeting scheduled for late July 2026 at the Evandale Place chambers in Bundall. Community submissions can be lodged through the council's official Have Your Say portal. Housing advocates from the Southport-based action group say they will attend in force and are encouraging affected residents from across the southern Gold Coast to register as speakers before the July 20 deadline for public participation requests.