Proposed Short-Term Rental Accommodation Amendment to Local Planning Scheme No. 3 and Amendments to the Short-Term Accommodation Local Planning Policy
The City is seeking community feedback on a proposed amendment to Local Planning Scheme No. 3 and amendments to the Short-term Accommodation Local Planning Policy.
Background
On 18 September 2024, the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage published amendments to the Planning and Development (Local Planning Schemes) Regulations 2015 (LPS Regulations) that facilitate changes for short-term rental accommodation (STRA).
The amended LPS Regulations introduce the following new land use categories for STRA:
- ‘Hosted short-term rental accommodation’, where the owner or property manager lives on site while the property is used for STRA. This land use, which replaces the existing ‘bed and breakfast’ land use, is exempt from the requirement to obtain planning approval.
- ‘Unhosted short-term rental accommodation’, where a property is rented on a short-term basis with the landowner living offsite. This land use, which replaces the existing ‘holiday house’ land use, is exempt from the requirement to obtain planning approval if operating for 90 nights or less in a 12-month period, otherwise planning approval is required. Unhosted short-term rental accommodation permits a maximum of 12 guests per night.
The implementation of hosted and unhosted short-term rental accommodation have been incorporated into the ‘deemed’ provisions of the LPS Regulations, meaning that they automatically apply to all local planning schemes and are unable to be altered, varied or excluded by local governments.
These amendments are now in effect and local planning frameworks are required to be updated by 1 January 2026 to align with the LPS Regulations.
Proposal
The purpose of this proposed amendment is to align Local Planning Scheme No. 3 with the changes to the Planning and Development (Local Planning Schemes) Regulations 2015.
The proposed amendment to Local Planning Scheme No. 3 would replace the superseded ‘bed and breakfast’ and ‘holiday house’ land use definitions in the planning scheme with ‘hosted short-term rental accommodation’ and ‘unhosted short-term rental accommodation’ respectively and assign land use permissibility within each zone.
Amendments to the Short-term Accommodation Local Planning Policy are also proposed for consistency with the concurrent planning scheme amendment as well as minor improvements to the operation of the Policy, including the following:
- Renaming the Policy to the ‘Short-term Rental Accommodation Local Planning Policy’ and updating wording of ‘short-term accommodation’ to ‘short-term rental accommodation’.
- Deleting definitions for ‘bed and breakfast’, ‘holiday house’ and ‘short-term accommodation’.
- Adding definitions for ‘hosted-short-term rental accommodation’, ‘short-term rental accommodation’, ‘short-term rental arrangement’ and ‘unhosted short-term rental accommodation.
- Removing development requirements for ‘bed and breakfast’ and ‘holiday house’ land uses.
- Adding development requirements for ‘unhosted-short-term rental accommodation’.
- Introducing a maximum occupancy for all short-term rental accommodation subject to the Policy of two persons per bedroom.
- Amendments to formatting and references throughout the Policy.
All proposed amendments are outlined in the attachments below.
Making a submission
Submissions can be made using the online Planning Consultation Submission Form below (preferred), via an email to info@joondalup.wa.gov.au or via post to PO Box 21, Joondalup WA 6919. All submissions must be in writing and include your full name and address. The City will not publish your name and address in any publicly available report on the outcomes of the community consultation. However, your full (de-identified) comments may be published.
Submission process
After the close of the advertising period, the proposal and the submissions received will be considered at a future Council meeting. If you choose to make a submission and elect to be kept informed on the progress of the application, you will be notified of the Council meeting date when confirmed.
Council will consider the proposal, and the submissions made. As Council is not the final decision maker, Council’s recommendation on the proposal is then forwarded to the Western Australian Planning Commission who make the final decision.
More information
The proposed amendments to Local Planning Scheme No. 3 and the Short-term Accommodation Local Planning Policy can be viewed using the links below.
A report on the proposal was presented to Council on 25 March 2025 outlining the proposed amendments and reasons for the amendments and is available here.
More information on the State Government’s STRA reforms can be found here.
Consultation period
Submissions will be accepted from Thursday 5 June - Thursday 17 July 2025.
Planning consultation submission form