Short-stay and mid-term management in Woollahra
Woollahra is the eastern-suburbs market that improved most over the last year, and it did not do it with a beach. Revenue per available night rose 48.2% in January and 63.7% in August against the same months a year earlier. The suburb sits between Paddington, Double Bay and the Bondi Junction interchange, which is a weekday address as much as a weekend one, and the numbers read that way.
How we read this market
MetaWise has run short-stay property across Sydney since 2009, and reads Woollahra with the same revenue tools it prices its own calendars with. The figures on this page come from the PriceLabs short-term rental index for the Woollahra official boundary — an average of 68 active listings over the twelve months to September 2026 — so each one can be traced to its source rather than taken on trust. They are averages across that market and they are modelled from listing data, not audited accounts. They are the market's numbers, not ours: we do not publish our owners' figures.
Demand
What actually fills a calendar here
Queen Street, and the trade that comes with it
The antique dealers, galleries and design showrooms along Queen Street bring a visitor who is not on holiday — buyers, interior designers, people in town for a sale or an installation. They book midweek, they book close in, and they are the reason a Woollahra calendar does not collapse between Monday and Thursday the way a beach calendar does.
A Bondi Junction address without the Bondi Junction rate
The interchange is a short walk from much of the suburb: trains to the city in under fifteen minutes, and every eastern-suburbs bus. For a guest who needs to be in the CBD on weekdays and does not want to pay a CBD rate, that combination is the whole argument, and it fills the nights tourism does not.
Centennial Park and the event calendar
The park, the Entertainment Quarter and the stadium precinct put a different kind of weekend into the year. These are concentrated dates rather than a season, which makes them a rate opportunity rather than an occupancy one — and the single easiest thing to leave money on if the calendar is not being watched.
Rate and occupancy moving together
Woollahra averaged a nightly rate of A$565 at 67.4% occupancy over the year. That is the balanced middle of this part of Sydney: Vaucluse charges far more and fills far less, Double Bay fills more and charges less. A property here is not forced to choose.
Property types
What works here
- Terraces and semis off Queen Street and Ocean Street, which suit a family or a group on a longer stay
- One and two-bedroom apartments within walking distance of the Bondi Junction interchange
- Larger houses on the Woollahra side of Centennial Park, where the event weekends carry the rate
Operations
What makes it hard
- The year is not flat. December's average rate reached A$684 while May fell to A$454, and occupancy ran from 81.8% in February to 48.8% in May. A single annual rate leaves the summer money behind and sits empty through the autumn.
- Much of the housing stock is terrace and heritage. Stairs, narrow access and no off-street parking change what a turnover costs and what a guest should be told before they book, not after.
- Midweek demand is a real part of this market, which means the calendar needs managing on weekdays rather than being set for weekends and left.
Rules
Compliance in this area
General information about how the NSW framework applies here, not advice on your building.
- Woollahra sits inside Greater Sydney, so non-hosted short-term rental accommodation is capped at 180 nights a year and the property must carry an STRA registration number.
- Bookings of 21 consecutive days or more are generally not counted toward that cap, which matters here because the midweek and trade demand supports longer stays than a holiday suburb does.
- Woollahra Municipal Council applies the state STRA framework. The by-law of the individual strata scheme is still the first thing to check, and it is the thing most likely to stop a property outright.
Coverage
Suburbs we service from here
Woollahra · Paddington surrounds · Edgecliff · Bondi Junction surrounds · Centennial Park surrounds
Questions
Woollahra — the village that works on a Tuesday — frequently asked
Why did Woollahra improve so much this year?
Revenue per available night rose 48.2% in January and 63.7% in August against the same months a year earlier. Rate and occupancy moved up together rather than one being bought with the other, which usually means demand grew rather than supply shrinking. Supply here stayed in a narrow band, 61 to 72 listings across the year.
Is this a weekend market?
Less than the beach suburbs. The Queen Street trade, the Bondi Junction transport link and the CBD commute put real midweek demand into the calendar. That is the difference between 67.4% occupancy here and 50.7% in Vaucluse, which charges far more per night.
What is the weakest part of the year?
May and June. Occupancy fell to 48.8% in May and the average rate to A$454, against 81.8% and A$684 at the peak. A property priced for summer and left alone spends a quarter of the year underused.