New York City Short-Term Rental Rules After Local Law 18

This guide is for New York City owners, renters and buyers who want to know what short-term renting is legal under Local Law 18, as of October 2026. It sets out the rules the way the city's Office of Special Enforcement (OSE) and the law's own text state them, what has changed since enforcement began, and the legal ways left to earn from a New York home.

You'll be able to test your unit against every registration condition, see every fine in one table, compare a 30-plus-day furnished rental with a registered room using your own numbers, and copy listing text and letters that keep you inside the rules. This guide is general information. For your lease, your building and your plans, check with a New York lawyer.

Local Law 18 Rules in One Table

Local Law 18 of 2022 was enacted on January 9, 2022. It added chapter 31 (rules for hosts) and chapter 32 (rules for booking platforms) to Title 26 of the city's Administrative Code. OSE's final rules took effect on March 6, 2023, and enforcement through the booking platforms began on September 5, 2023.

The limits on short stays are older than the law. The state Multiple Dwelling Law says a Class A apartment building may be used only for permanent residence, which means the same person or family living there for 30 consecutive days or more. What Local Law 18 added is a registration system that lets the city and the platforms check every listing. OSE's own summary says the short-stay limits have existed in the city since the 1960s.

Two lines in that table decide most cases. If you won't be home for every night of the stay, or you want to rent the whole apartment or house, no registration makes a stay under 30 nights legal. The rest of this guide follows from those two rules.

Who Can Register a Short-Term Rental in NYC

Only a natural person can register, and only for the unit they live in as a permanent occupant. OSE's rules define a permanent occupant as a person or family living in the unit for 30 consecutive days or more; a boarder, roomer or lodger never counts. You can be the owner or a tenant. Tenants must certify that their lease doesn't bar them from registering and hosting, and once a complete application arrives, the law requires OSE to notify the owner of record of the unit and of the building.

Each person may hold one registration and host in one unit. A registration can't be transferred to another person or another unit. It lasts up to four years, or until the end of your proven right to live there if that comes sooner.

Units That Cannot Be Registered

OSE's rules shut these out no matter how carefully you host:

• Rent-stabilized and rent-controlled apartments, units with 421-a or 489 tax benefits, and other housing whose rent is regulated by law or by an agreement with a government agency.
• Apartments in New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) developments.
• Rooming units.
• Any unit in a building on OSE's prohibited buildings list, which owners, co-op boards and condo boards can join.
• Units with certain open violations: a Class 1 Department of Buildings violation or Class C housing code violation tied to the unit, any open fire code violation, a work-without-a-permit violation on the unit, a vacate order or a stop work order.

Guests also can't sleep in attics, cellars or garages unless the Department of Buildings has authorized it, and OSE won't approve an application whose listing offers the whole unit or more guests than the housing code allows.

Documents OSE Asks For

You apply through OSE's online portal. Under the final rules, you give your full legal name, phone, email, the full address with unit number, the type of home, the number of unrelated people living with you, every existing listing link, and whether you own or rent. Then you upload:

• One unexpired ID, such as a driver's license, state ID, U.S. or foreign passport, IDNYC card, U.S. military ID or permanent resident card.
• Two proofs of permanent occupancy from two different categories, each showing your name and the exact address, such as a utility bill or bank statement dated within the last 60 days, a voter registration card, last year's income tax form or a W-2.
• If you rent, the lease pages showing the term, the unit address, and the names and signatures of the parties.
• The $145 application fee, which is non-refundable.

OSE publishes the mistakes that sink applications most often: proofs that miss the unit number or come from the same category, lease pages without dates or signatures, listings that offer the whole unit or more than two guests or don't say the host stays with guests, a missing unit number, and open violations. Its fiscal 2026 report says 74% of applications denied for problems the applicant didn't fix involved applicants who couldn't prove they were the permanent occupant.

What Happens After You Apply

You get an email confirmation when a complete application goes in. If something is missing, OSE emails you, and the application is rejected if the information doesn't arrive within 30 days, unless OSE grants an extension for good cause. If every problem is fixable, the rules give you 90 days to fix it before a denial, and a denial must list every reason. OSE's fiscal 2025 report put average review times at under a week.

What Booking Platforms Must Check

Chapter 32 puts much of the enforcement on the platforms. A booking service can't charge, collect or receive a fee for a stay under 30 nights unless it has run the listing through OSE's electronic verification system. The system confirms one of two things: the address is on the city's list of Class B buildings, or the listing carries a valid registration number whose host name, address and listing link match OSE's records. Each check returns a confirmation number, which the platform includes when it reports its short-stay transactions to OSE.

Verification isn't a one-time event. Platforms must reverify each listing at least every 12 calendar months, as a Cole Schotz summary of the law explains, and a listing whose registration has lapsed or been revoked can no longer pass the check.

What This Means for Your Listing

• Your name, address and registration number on each platform must match your registration exactly. The rules make that the host's job.
• Add any new listing link to your registration before you take a booking through it.
• Show your registration number in every ad or offer, on every site.
• Report changes to your application within 15 business days.
• If your registration expires or you move out, stop taking short-stay bookings at once and cancel the pending ones.

Fines and Revocation for Hosts and Platforms

Local Law 18 sets the maximums, and OSE's rules set a schedule for most host violations. Some first offenses drop to zero if you prove you fixed the problem, which the rules call a cure. Higher amounts, up to $5,000, apply when a host misses the hearing (a default). These are the main amounts as of October 2026.

The state advertising penalty comes from Multiple Dwelling Law section 121, which makes it unlawful to advertise a Class A unit for occupancy that breaks the permanent-residence rule. In a city of one million people or more, OSE enforces it.

Revocation

OSE can revoke a registration, after notice and a chance to be heard, on grounds the law lists, including illegal short-stay use of the unit, a material false statement on the application, repeat violations and the building joining the prohibited list. Since late April 2025, OSE has been sending Notices of Intent to Revoke, with cases heard at the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH) or in State Supreme Court.

OSE estimated that about 20% of registered listings were offering illegal occupancy as of early June 2025, and it has been sending warning notices to those hosts. Those warnings list inspections, summonses, fines, revocation and denial of future renewal applications among the possible consequences. In fiscal 2026 OSE revoked 17 registrations, with 15 more pending.

What Has Changed Since September 2023

The short answer for October 2026: the host rules are the same ones that took effect in 2023. Bills to ease them for owner-occupied one- and two-family homes have been introduced three times, and none has passed. Here is the sequence from the city's records and the Council's bill tracker.

1. January 9, 2022Local Law 18 is enacted.
2. March 6, 2023OSE's final registration rules take effect.
3. September 5, 2023Enforcement begins: booking platforms must verify listings through OSE before collecting fees.
4. June 6, 2024Int 0948-2024 (Council Member Mercedes Narcisse) is introduced to ease the rules for one- and two-family homes.
5. November 13, 2024Int 1107-2024 (Council Member Farah Louis) is introduced to change the common-household access rule in one- and two-family homes.
6. Late April 2025OSE starts a pilot of Notices of Intent to Revoke registrations.
7. End of the 2024-2025 sessionBoth 2024 bills are filed without a vote.
8. April 30, 2026Int 0879-2026 (Narcisse) is introduced and sent to the Committee on Housing and Buildings.
9. September 2026OSE reports more than 3,500 active approved hosts.
10. 2026 and 2027Hosts approved in 2023 reach their renewal window, which opens 6 months before a four-year registration ends.

Int 0879-2026 would change three things for the owner-occupied unit in a one- or two-family home. As of October 17, 2026, the Council's bill tracker lists it in the Committee on Housing and Buildings with no hearing or vote recorded. Its 2024 version, Int 0948-2024, and Int 1107-2024 were both filed at the end of the 2024-2025 session without a vote.

Don't buy, renovate or sign a lease counting on this bill. A bill can change in committee or expire at the end of a session, as its 2024 version did. Plan on today's rules and treat any change as a bonus.

The Market by the Numbers

OSE estimated there were about 60,000 illegal listings on major platforms in 2018 and more than 38,000 active listings on a single site at the start of 2023. By September 2026 it counted more than 3,500 active approved hosts, after more than 460 new registrations in fiscal 2026 (July 2025 to June 2026). Registrations and listings are different measures, but legal short-stay supply is a small fraction of what it was.

Who registers has shifted too. In fiscal 2026, about 76% of registered hosts owned their units and 68% of registered units were in one- and two-family homes, mostly in the outer boroughs and especially Brooklyn, amNY reported on September 1, 2026. Over three years, 618 applications for rent-regulated units were denied.

The effect on travelers is disputed. Airbnb's own analysis, published September 3, 2024, said New York hotel rates rose 7.4% from July 2023 to July 2024 against 2.1% nationally, citing CoStar, and argued the law had not helped housing. Airbnb backs changing the law and tenant groups oppose it, so read each side's numbers with its position in mind.

The Legal Paths Left for a New York Home

If you can't host in your own home, or don't want to, the law still allows a few ways to earn from a New York unit. Each is a use the law already permits, with its own rules. Here they are side by side.

Thirty-Plus-Day Furnished Rentals

The 30-day line comes from state law. The Multiple Dwelling Law defines permanent residence as occupancy by the same person or family for 30 consecutive days or more, and Local Law 18 covers only rentals of fewer than 30 consecutive days. OSE's registration page states that rentals of 30 consecutive days or more are exempt from registration.

That exemption brings a different set of duties. Airbnb's guidance for New York City warns that a residential tenancy may be created after 30 consecutive days of occupancy. Under the state's Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law section 711, a tenant or lawful occupant can be removed only through a court proceeding. In practice, treat every 30-plus-day guest as a tenant: use a written lease drafted for New York, screen the way a landlord would, and have a New York lawyer review your template once.

Demand for these stays comes from people who need a furnished home for a month or more: work relocations, project assignments, medical staff on contract, visiting academics and families between homes. Mid-term rental sites, Airbnb's monthly stays and your own website all reach them. Our guide to running a mid-term rental covers pricing, lease length and setup.

If you're near a hospital, the travel-nurse segment has its own habits and booking sites. Our guide to renting to travel nurses covers what they look for and where they search.

Class B and Hotel Buildings

Local Law 18 doesn't apply to Class B multiple dwellings, the category the Multiple Dwelling Law uses for buildings occupied "as a rule transiently," such as hotels, lodging houses, rooming houses and boarding houses. Platforms check these addresses against OSE's Class B list instead of a registration number. OSE's rules state that a registration doesn't change a building's legal occupancy as shown on its certificate of occupancy, so a Class A apartment stays Class A whatever the host files. If a seller or broker says a building is legal for short stays, ask for the certificate of occupancy and have a New York lawyer confirm it.

Marketing Thirty-Night Stays

For 30-plus-day guests, your own website, Google listing and social channels can bring people who search for monthly stays, and the platforms stay an option. Keep the channels separate: Airbnb's Off-Platform and Fee Transparency Policy bars asking guests who found you on Airbnb to book elsewhere, so your direct marketing should reach people who find your own brand. Our direct booking strategy guide shows how to do that within each platform's rules.

Thirty-Day Rental Versus a Registered Room

If you live in the home and have a spare room, you can rent that room two legal ways: to one guest for 30 nights or more, or as registered short stays for up to two guests while you're home. The calculator below shows what each keeps after the platform fee and the main short-stay costs, using example numbers you can change.

Example: an owner in a two-family house in Queens, with made-up numbers, could let the spare room to one long-stay guest at $1,800 a month for 10 months and keep $17,460 after a 3% fee. The same room as a registered short stay at $120 a night for 180 nights keeps $19,341 after the fee, 45 cleanings at $35 and the registration cost. The short stays come out $1,881 ahead, in exchange for 45 turnovers and 180 nights of sharing the home with up to two guests at a time.

The fee in the calculator matches Airbnb's service fee page: most hosts still on the split fee pay 3%, but Airbnb says it is moving hosts off that structure, and the single fee, already mandatory for most hosts including those on property management software, is 15.5% for most hosts. If you pay 15.5%, both results fall, and the side with more revenue on the platform falls more. A 30-plus-day booking through your own website carries no platform fee.

The numbers leave out what matters most to many owners: the hours each turnover takes, the nights you must be home, and the risk that a 30-plus-day guest gains tenant rights. For a wider view of furnished versus long-term income, see our short-term versus long-term rental income comparison.

Ask your accountant how each option's income is taxed in New York before you choose, and keep the records either way. Our tax guide for hosts covers the basics to bring to that conversation.

Rules for Renters, Co-ops and Condos

Renters

A renter can register only if the lease doesn't bar it, and OSE will tell the owner of record that you applied. If your apartment is rent-stabilized or rent-controlled, you can't register at all.

For a 30-plus-day sublet, Real Property Law section 226-b gives tenants in buildings with four or more units the right to sublet with the landlord's written consent in advance, which can't be unreasonably withheld. You ask by certified mail, return receipt requested, with the sublet term, the subtenant's name and addresses, your reason, where you'll live during the sublet, any co-tenant's or guarantor's written consent, and a copy of the proposed sublease. The landlord may ask for more information within 10 days and must answer within 30 days of your request or of your extra information, whichever is later. Silence counts as consent.

For rent-stabilized units, those sublet rights are subject to the rent stabilization rules, so check with a New York lawyer before you offer the unit to anyone.

[Date]

[Landlord name]
[Landlord address]

Re: Request for consent to sublet, [Your address and apartment number]

Dear [Landlord name],

Under New York Real Property Law section 226-b, I am asking for your written consent to sublet my apartment at [Address, apartment number].

Proposed term: [Start date] to [End date]
Proposed subtenant: [Full name]
Subtenant's home address: [Address]
Subtenant's business address: [Address]
Reason for the sublet: [Plain reason, for example a work assignment out of state]
My address during the sublet: [Address]
Consent of co-tenant or guarantor: [Attached / Not applicable]

A copy of the proposed sublease is enclosed. Please let me know if you need any further information.

Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Phone] [Email]

Co-ops and Condos

A city registration doesn't override your building. The law states that registration is not permission for any use that would break a lease, co-op bylaws or condo rules. Boards can also put the building on OSE's prohibited buildings list by certifying that leases and occupancy agreements bar short-term rentals. Once a building is listed, no unit there can register, and an existing registration is revoked if the building joins the list later. OSE's fiscal 2025 report counted more than 14,000 owners and managers who had listed buildings.

Read your proprietary lease or condo rules for limits on rentals of any length before you list, including 30-plus-day stays, and ask the managing agent about the board's sublet approval steps.

Buying in New York City for Rental Income

If you're buying with rental income in mind, underwrite on 30-plus-day or long-term rent. A unit you won't live in can't earn short-stay income under today's rules, and a unit you will live in can earn it only from a room, two guests at a time, with you home.

Before you sign, check these points with your lawyer:

• Rent regulation status of the unit, since regulated units can never register.
• Whether the building is on OSE's prohibited buildings list, which OSE publishes on the city's open data portal.
• The certificate of occupancy and the building's class, Class A or Class B.
• Open Department of Buildings, housing code and fire code violations, since certain ones block registration until corrected.
• Co-op, condo or homeowner association rules on rentals of every length.
• Your own plan: registration requires you to live there as a permanent occupant.

Housing type matters. Brick Underground, citing a 2024 Citizens Housing and Planning Council report, put one- and two-family houses at 26% of the city's housing, 45% in Queens and 1% in Manhattan. That helps explain why registered rooms cluster in the outer boroughs, and why a Manhattan condo bought for short stays has the least room to work.

For neighborhood demand, seasons and how travelers search the city, see our New York City market page.

To compare New York with other cities' rules, our guide to U.S. city rules in 2026 sets them side by side.

Legal Short Stays for Visitors in Each Borough

Travelers searching for an Airbnb in Manhattan, Queens or Staten Island still have legal options, and the same rules apply in all five boroughs. They can book a hotel or other Class B building, a registered room in a host's home with the host present and at most two guests, or a stay of 30 nights or more. A short-stay listing in a private home should show a city registration number. Hosts who want to understand permits in other markets can start with our permits and licensing guide.

What to Do This Week

Pick the line that matches you and do those steps first.

• You live in the unit and have a spare room: run the checklist above, gather one ID and two proofs of address from different categories, write your listing with the text below, and apply through OSE.
• You're already registered: check your expiration date. Renewal opens 6 months before your 4-year term ends, OSE emails you when you can apply, and it costs $145 with a current ID and two current proofs of address. Match your name and address on every platform, and set up your records file.
• Your unit is empty, or you won't be home: set the minimum stay to 30 nights or more everywhere, get a New York lease template reviewed, and score yourself on the scorecard.
• You rent: read your lease. For a 30-plus-day sublet, send the 226-b request above and wait for consent or the 30-day answer period.
• You're buying: run the buyer checks before you sign a contract, and value the home on monthly or annual rent.

Private room in my [Borough] home, hosted

NYC short-term rental registration number: [Your OSE registration number]

I live here, and I will be home for your whole stay. This listing is one private room in my home for up to two guests (children under 4 do not count). You will share the apartment with me and can use every part of it, including the kitchen, bathroom and living room.

The room has [bed size], [storage], and [work space]. The apartment is [walking time] from [subway line or station].

Hi [Guest first name],

Thanks for asking. New York City's short-term rental rules let me host up to two guests in my home, and only while I'm staying here too, so I can't offer the whole apartment or add a third guest for a stay under 30 nights.

If a room for two works for you, I'd be glad to host you on [Dates]. If you need the whole place, a hotel or a stay of 30 nights or more would be the legal options.

[Your name]

listing_url_or_id,booking_start_date,nights_rented,guests_accommodated,total_rent_received

That last block covers the five things OSE's rules require you to keep for each stay, for at least seven years. If your platform's own report shows all five, the rules say you don't need a separate file. If OSE asks, you have 15 business days to send the records through its portal.

If you're moving a New York unit to 30-plus-day stays and want those guests to find your own website, Cavmir™ builds direct-booking websites, search visibility and content for rental owners and managers, and our prices are on the pricing page.

If you'd like to talk through the marketing side, you can book a call with Cavmir. For legal questions about your unit, the right call is to a New York lawyer.

Sources

Every figure in this guide comes from these sources, checked in October 2026.

• NYC Office of Special Enforcement, "Registration Law," October 2026: nyc.gov
• NYC Office of Special Enforcement, "Registration Rules and Laws," October 2026: nyc.gov
• NYC Office of Special Enforcement, "What Is Local Law 18?," October 2026: nyc.gov
• NYC Office of Special Enforcement, "Enforcement," October 2026: nyc.gov
• NYC Office of Special Enforcement, "Common Mistakes by Applicants," October 2026: nyc.gov
• NYC Office of Special Enforcement, "Renew Your Registration," October 2026: nyc.gov
• New York City Council, Local Law 18 of 2022 (Int. No. 2309-A), full text: nyc.gov
• NYC Office of Special Enforcement, "Final Rules Governing Registration and Requirements for Short-Term Rentals" (43 RCNY chapters 21 and 22), 2023: nyc.gov
• NYC Office of Special Enforcement, fiscal 2026 report release, "New Yorkers Registered to Host Surpassed 3,500 for First Time," September 2026: nyc.gov
• Cole Schotz, "NYC Short-Term Rentals Under New Lock and Key", March 13, 2023: coleschotz.com
• NYC Office of Special Enforcement, fiscal 2025 report release, "New Report Sheds Fresh Light on How Local Law 18," 2025: nyc.gov
• New York State Senate, Multiple Dwelling Law section 4 (definitions of Class A and Class B): nysenate.gov
• New York State Senate, Multiple Dwelling Law section 121 (advertising): nysenate.gov
• New York State Senate, Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law section 711: nysenate.gov
• New York State Senate, Real Property Law section 226-b (subletting): nysenate.gov
• New York City Council bill tracker, Int 0879-2026, "Short-term rentals in one- and two-family dwellings," October 2026: intro.nyc
• New York City Council bill tracker, Int 0948-2024, "Short-term rentals in one- and two-family dwellings": intro.nyc
• New York City Council bill tracker, Int 1107-2024, "Common households for short-term rentals in one- and two-family dwellings": intro.nyc
• Airbnb Help Center, "Long-term rentals in NYC," October 2026: airbnb.com
• Airbnb Help Center, "Airbnb service fees," October 2026: airbnb.com
• Airbnb Newsroom, "NYC's rules one year later: Higher prices for travelers, no housing impact," September 3, 2024: news.airbnb.com
• amNY, "New short-term rental data," September 1, 2026: amny.com
• Brick Underground, "Owners and tenant advocates square off over short-term rental bill," January 22, 2025: brickunderground.com