Auckland Council Short-Term Rental Rules 2026: What Applies, and What’s Changed

Auckland has no short-term rental licence and no cap on nights. What it does have is a rates rule: if your property is booked for more than 28 nights in the rating year, part of your rates is charged at the business level. You declare your nights to the council. For 2026/27, the council has kept this system and has not reinstated the accommodation provider targeted rate.

Wondering what your property could earn? See What could your Auckland property earn on Airbnb?

Very little, and that’s worth knowing.

• The accommodation provider targeted rate (APTR) is still off. Auckland Council has decided not to reinstate it for 2026/2027 (Auckland Council, “Rating of providers of online accommodation properties”, accessed 28 September 2026).
• The nights that count have rolled forward. Your 2026/27 rates are based on nights booked between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026.
• Changes applied from 1 July 2026 and show on the August 2026 rates bill.

The rules themselves, the thresholds and the declaration, are the same as last year.

The council rates a short-stay property on a graduated scale, based on how many nights it was booked through a peer-to-peer site such as Airbnb or Bookabach in the previous rating year.

Source: Auckland Council, “Rating of providers of online accommodation properties”, 2026/2027 (accessed 28 September 2026). The split applies to the general rate and the Climate Action Transport Targeted Rate. It applies wherever in Auckland the property is.

The business share depends on two things: the number of nights booked, and the capital value of the property.

Yes, if your property is booked for more than 28 nights in the rating year. You do it through the council’s short-term online accommodation declaration.

If you don’t declare:

• New short-stay properties are rated as if they were booked for 29 to 135 nights (75% residential, 25% business).
• Properties the council already knows about stay in their existing rating category.

It can. The council looks at whether the rented area is distinct from the main home. The questions it asks:

1. Is it a separate building, or a clearly separate area inside the house?
2. Does it have its own entrance, bathroom and kitchen facilities?
3. Is it mainly used by paying guests?

If the answer is yes to some of these, business rates may apply. A council valuer may visit to decide.

Generally not, for letting a home. The Auckland Unitary Plan’s definition of “visitor accommodation” (the activity that needs planning rules) specifically excludes “letting of dwellings, including for holiday purposes” (Auckland Unitary Plan, Chapter J1 Definitions, July 2026). Hotels, motels and backpackers are covered by those rules. An ordinary home let for short stays is not.

If you own an apartment or a unit-titled home, check your body corporate rules too. While a body corporate generally cannot ban short-term letting outright, they can enforce strict rules around noise, security, occupancy, and common areas. Building regulations also apply: councils can treat frequent short-stay use as a change of use under the Building Act. If you’re unsure, check with both your body corporate and council before taking bookings.

Since 1 April 2024, online marketplaces such as Airbnb collect GST at 15% on short-stay accommodation booked through them. If you are not GST registered, the marketplace passes on a flat-rate credit of 8.5% to you (Inland Revenue, “Short-stay and visitor accommodation”, accessed 28 September 2026).

You must register for GST if your taxable activities, short-stay income included, earn more than $60,000 in any 12-month period. Short-stay income is also taxable income. Talk to your accountant about your own situation.

Rates declarations and GST are the kind of detail that is easy to lose track of when you’re running a property yourself. As your manager, we keep a clear record of every booked night and can supply an annual booked-nights summary on request for your council declaration, and our owner portal shows you what’s happening at your property, when.

For what we charge, see Airbnb management fees NZ: the transparent breakdown.