Council chiefs are confident that a new planning policy for houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) has no "recognised flaw", despite the authority losing a small number of appeals.
The new Swansea policy - introduced in February last year - is designed to prevent HMO numbers exceeding certain thresholds in different parts of the city.
Developers who have their applications turned down can still appeal to the planning inspectorate, and a handful of them have been successful in Uplands and Port Tennant - areas popular with students.
The council challenged one of these appeals unsuccessfully in the High Court.
In a written answer to questions submitted by Uplands councillors Peter May and Irene Mann, cabinet member for delivery and performance, Cllr David Hopkins, said 33 of 82 HMO applications submitted in Uplands since the new policy was introduced had been refused.
Two subsequent appeals, he said, had overturned the council's refusal decision while another had upheld it.
Cllr Hopkins said the Welsh Government-appointed planning inspectors who sided with the appellants had considered "site-specific circumstances and other material considerations that they considered were overriding to warrant a departure from the adopted policy".
His reply added: "Inspectors have always been allowed to do this within the provisions of planning legislation, and this will continue to be the case.
"This can be a frustration for local authorities that make local decisions in line with adopted policies, in the interests of local communities."
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Cllrs May and Mann said they were worried that developers were boosting their chances of success by saying they had marketed a residential home they wanted to convert into an HMO for six months without success.
The ward members wanted to know if the council would make the HMO policy "robust and defensible at appeal" when it was next reviewed.
Cllr Hopkins said a monitoring report about the new policy was due to be published later this year, and also that planning officers would be alerted if the HMO concentration went up or down 2% from the prescribed 25% threshold in Uplands.
"Given the above it is clear that changing adopted council policy would be neither appropriate nor productive," he said. "There is no recognised flaw or weakness in the policy and in fact the records clearly show a significant increase in the number of applications for HMOs being refused since LDP adoption."
The latest successful appeal was last month, when a developer was given the go-ahead to convert two flats on Mansel Street into a six-bed HMO.
Overturning the council's decision, the inspector said the proposed conversion would exceed the designated HMO threshold level for the area, but judged that there were "exceptional circumstances" which warranted its approval.
