There’s a lot to love about holidaying in Byron Bay. The place has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, cool shopping, top-tier dining, and the opportunity to accidentally rub shoulders with Chris Hemsworth while getting an acai bowl. However, last September the NSW Government and the local Byron Shire Council made moves towards solving the area's rental crisis (for locals) by introducing a 60-day rental cap. The initiative meant that home owners could only list their properties on short-term holiday sites like Airbnb and Stayz for 60 days of the year – with the intended effect of freeing up homes for locals to enter into long-term home leases.
At the time the new rules were met with pushback – by said home owners, local businesses and some in the tourism industry – and some pundits declared that similar caps in New York hadn’t had any positive affect on housing accessibility. At the time, Michael Crosby, Head of Public Policy for Airbnb Australia and New Zealand said he envisioned Byron’s "critical" tourism sector would "suffer" as a result.
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One year on from the introduction of the cap, data from the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure shows that there were 1,004 non-hosted rental properties registered in August, 2025 – less than the 1,195 registered a couple of years prior in September. That said, Byron Shire Council Mayor Sarah Ndiaye told ABC News she feels confident things are moving in the right direction, and that it will take more time for positive effects to show, citing Airbnb data that showed a drop in listings in the Byron area.
“Even if we got 20 per cent, 10 per cent of those houses back [into the rental market], that still makes a dent in the availability," she said.
Despite some local business owners voicing concerns over the cap, Cr Ndiaye says the rule is here to stay. “We fought for years, our community fought for years to get these changes and so I don't see anyone shying away from them anytime soon.”
Another interesting point to note: we reported recently that home prices in Byron have seen a drop of 1.7 per cent, while those in Forster-Tuncurry are down 1.5 per cent. If you’re keen for more of a green than blue sea change, values fell in NSW’s Bowral-Mittagong region, down 0.5 per cent. Hello, more tulip admiring and antique shopping.
The points where housing and tourism intersect has posed difficult challenges for many Australian areas in recent years – so we'll be interested to stay tuned on how this continues.
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