A SYDNEY unit block is believed to be the first residential building in Australia to ban smoking in all residents' homes.

Unit owners have introduced a bylaw to stop anyone smoking anywhere within the building and on its balconies, The Sydney Morning Herald says.

"We've made it a smoke-free zone in its entirety," chairman of the owners' corporation Alex Antic said.

Owners of the building at Ashfield in Sydney's inner west acted after complaints about smoke drifting into neighbouring flats and butts dropped from balconies.

"The right for people to smoke has to be balanced with other people's rights to clean and fresh air in their own home," Mr Antic said.

A spokesman for the lobby group Action on Smoking and Health, Stafford Sanders, said other people had approached him about stubbing out smoking in their blocks.

However, the president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Cameron Murphy, said: "You can't ban the use of a lawful product in someone's own home.

"The next thing is they'll be banning the drinking of coffee."