Saturday, December 3, 2011

Hotels in Apartment Buildings

Many of the apartment buildings in Brisbane are "class 2" buildings -- which means they are for residential use.  To operate a hotel, the building must be a class 3 building.

A number of onsite managers operate hotels from class 2 buildings.  An example is Oaks.  Many owners are not happy with this situation.  See prior posts for example.

At M on Mary, an owner tried to stop the onsite manager operating a short term rental operation from the building, on the basis that the building was only a class 2 building.  A decision of the Tribunal said that it did not have the power to deal with this issue.  See decision.

2 comments:

Annette Higgins said...

I own one of these apartments. A decision to remove short term letting would have adverse impacts for residents, due to the major drop im value, and massive inflix of students. Across the state, it would also create a major undersupply of hotel accommodation, which would crush our struggling tourism industry. The Department of Infrastructure and Planning dont want to touch the issue as a result.

Brisbane said...

Comment from a reader sent to me by email:

Another point re your blog, I read with great interest about Class 2 and 3 buildings. I wonder what the situation is regarding Class 2 and 3 buildings in relation to Hamilton Harbour One and all the other new high-rise apts going up. I have been told by a recent off-plan buyer that they have a rental manager there who told the off-plan buyer he is actively seeking units from “investment owners” to put into the short term rental pool at a much higher weekly rate than could be obtained by a 1 x year agreement. Is this why hotel occupancy rates around town are low??