Australian real estate agents and landlords are taking a stand against tenants who sublet their rental properties. New clauses are being added to rental contracts that require written permission from the strata corporation or landlord if the tenant wishes to sublet their property on short-term rental sites, such as Airbnb.

"I think it's important," Malcolm Gunning, president of the Real Estate Institute of Australia, told SCHWARTZWILLIAMS.

Short-term tenants have been known to put strain on new apartment buildings that are not designed to cope with more-than-expected occupants, said Gunning.

"The transfer of noise between apartments can also be a problem," he said.

Gunning said strata corporations should know who occupies the building for safety reasons, for example in the case of a fire.

He said it is a good idea that tenants are required to obtain permission to sublet their properties, and to let strata corporations know who will be occupying the property.

Gunning said short-term rentals are not a problem so long as they are only occasional, such as when the tenant is going on holidays and the property would otherwise be vacant, and so long as the body corporate is informed.

Gunning said that Airbnb can help tenants act as professional landlords, yet it operates outside the Residential Tenancy Act.

Some tenants are willing to pay above market rent because they intend to sublet the property to short-term tenants, said Gunning, an option hard for some landlords to resist.

Read more about the rental property market:

How to be a good landlord

Calls for greater security for renters

Are we becoming a nation of renters?