Gold Coast Airbnb win for body corporate

Gold Coast property owners have gone to court again to challenge a ban on short term rentals at an exclusive local estate.

TWO Gold Coast property owners have lost their appeal to lift a ban on short term rentals in their exclusive Hope Island estate.

The failed bid follows a major ruling on the issue late last year, where the Body Corporate of the swanky Fairway Island complex was the first of its kind in the state to win the right to ban the short term letting schemes.

Owners Gary Redman and Andrew Murray sought to appeal the November ruling in district court this month, arguing the act and the body corporate did not have the power to ban them from letting out their properties.

Two Gold Coast property owners have lost their appeal to life a ban on short term rentals in their exclusive Hope Island estate. Picture Glenn Hampson

GOLD COAST BODY CORPORATE FIRST IN STATE TO BAN AIRBNB

Other owners however had long complained of ‘party houses’ in the residential complex.

Fairway Island is a 85-lot subsidiary of the Hope Island resort and is governed by the Building Units and Group Titles Act 1980 (Qld) (BUGTA).

Only 250 schemes in Queensland remain under the older BUGTA, while new complexes come under the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 (BCCMA), which has tougher restrictions.

District Court Judge Ken Barlow QC ruled that the original findings were to be upheld, because there was no evidence that the ban on Airbnb and other short term lets was “oppressive or unreasonable.”

It is not yet known if the appellants will be required to pay the legal fees for the body corporate committee.