Last reviewed: 27 July 2026. This is a complete rewrite. The previous version described a market that no longer exists: Local Law 18 enforcement began in September 2023 and fundamentally changed what is possible here.
The short version
- Short-term rentals of dwelling units were already largely illegal in New York City before Local Law 18. They are prohibited by the Multiple Dwelling Law, the Housing Maintenance Code and the Construction Codes. Local Law 18 did not create the prohibition; it created a registration and enforcement mechanism on top of it.
- You must register with the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement (OSE) before listing a unit for stays under 30 days.
- Platforms cannot process bookings for unregistered listings. That is the enforcement lever, and it works.
- The host must be present. You must certify the unit is your primary residence and that you will be physically in it for the entire guest stay.
- Maximum two paying guests, and they must have unfettered access to all common areas. Locking internal doors to create a separate guest suite is prohibited.
- Your building may be on a prohibited list. Owners, co-op and condo boards can ask OSE to add their buildings, blocking registration entirely.
- Approval is not routine. Reporting puts OSE's approval rate at roughly 40%.
- 30 days or more falls outside the law entirely. This is where most professional operators went.
What actually changed, and what did not
This distinction matters and almost every older guide gets it wrong.
What did not change: renting a dwelling unit for fewer than 30 days was already unlawful in most New York City residential buildings, under the state Multiple Dwelling Law and the city's Housing Maintenance Code and Construction Codes. OSE's own rulemaking says so plainly. Hosts operating before 2023 were, in the main, operating illegally, whether or not anyone enforced it.
What changed: Local Law 18 of 2022, enacted on 9 January 2022, created a registration requirement for hosts and a verification requirement for booking platforms. It added Chapters 31 and 32 to Title 26 of the New York City Administrative Code and is administered by OSE.
The critical piece is the platform obligation. Booking services are prohibited from processing transactions for unregistered short-term rentals. Enforcement began on 5 September 2023, initially focused on making sure platforms were using the city's verification system correctly and stopping unverified transactions.
That is why the effect was so abrupt. The city did not need to inspect thousands of apartments. It needed the platforms to check a database.
Sources: NYC Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement, Registration Law and Registration Rules and Laws
At a glance
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| What counts as short-term? | Fewer than 30 consecutive days |
| Registration required? | Yes, with OSE, before listing |
| Must I be present? | Yes, for the entire stay |
| Must it be my primary residence? | Yes |
| Maximum paying guests | 2 |
| Can I lock off a guest bedroom? | No. Guests need access to all common areas |
| Can my building block me? | Yes, via the prohibited buildings list |
| Do platforms verify? | Yes, and they must refuse unregistered listings |
| Is 30 days or more covered? | No, it falls outside the law |
The registration requirements in plain terms
To register with OSE you must be able to certify, among other things:
Primary residence. The unit is where you actually live.
Presence throughout. You will be physically present in the unit for the whole of each guest's stay. This is what people mean by "host-present." It is not a formality; it defines the entire permitted model.
No more than two paying guests at a time.
Unfettered access to common areas. Guests must be able to use all the common household spaces. You cannot lock internal doors to partition off a guest area. This provision has drawn substantial public criticism during rulemaking, on privacy and security grounds, but it is the rule as adopted.
Applications go through the city's Short-Term Rental Registration Portal, using an NYC.ID account.
Approval is genuinely uncertain. Reporting indicates an approval rate of around 40%, with common refusal grounds including the building appearing on the prohibited list and the unit being rent-regulated.
The prohibited buildings list
This is the mechanism most likely to end your plan before it starts, and it operates independently of anything you do.
Local Law 18 allows owners of buildings where short-term rentals are not permitted to notify OSE and request that their building be added to a prohibited buildings list. Residential building owners, co-op boards and condo boards can all use it.
If your building is on that list, OSE will not register your unit. There is no workaround.
Check the list before you plan anything, and if you are buying into a building with the intention of hosting, check it before you buy.
What happened to the market
Worth stating because it sets realistic expectations.
Reporting in early 2024, several months after enforcement began, put the number of short-term listings in New York City at roughly 2,300, against something in the region of 22,000 before enforcement.
The professional operator market did not disappear. It moved to stays of 30 consecutive nights or longer, which fall outside Local Law 18 entirely: no registration requirement, no host-present rule, no two-guest cap. That segment serves corporate housing, relocations, travelling medical staff and insurance placements, and it is now the dominant form of professional furnished rental in the city.
If your business model requires an empty apartment let by the night, New York City is not a market you can enter lawfully. If it can accommodate monthly terms, it is.
Appeals and enforcement
If your application is rejected, or a certificate is suspended or revoked, there is a written appeal route. Deadlines are short, so read the notice carefully and act on it rather than waiting.
Enforcement of the pre-existing prohibitions continues independently of the registration regime and is complaint-driven. OSE has stated that hosts should abide by all legal requirements that predated Local Law 18.
Co-ops, condos and leases
Even where the law permits, three private layers can prohibit:
Co-op and condo governing documents and house rules. Boards regulate what units may be used for, and many prohibit transient occupancy outright. This is also how buildings end up on the prohibited list.
Your lease. Most New York residential leases prohibit subletting or transient use. Doing it anyway is a lease violation regardless of your registration status.
Rent regulation. Rent-stabilised and rent-controlled units carry additional restrictions, and reporting identifies rent-regulated status as a common ground for registration refusal.
Tax
New York City and New York State both apply taxes to transient occupancy, and the picture depends on the length of stay and the nature of the accommodation. Because the lawful short-term segment is now so narrow, and because the 30-plus-day segment is treated differently, the tax analysis is unusually dependent on your specific facts.
Take advice from a New York accountant rather than relying on a general summary, and confirm which taxes any platform remits on your behalf and which remain yours.
A practical checklist
- Check whether your building is on the prohibited buildings list before anything else
- Read your co-op or condo governing documents, or your lease
- Confirm the unit is your primary residence
- Confirm you can genuinely be present for every stay
- Confirm you can host within two paying guests and without locking internal doors
- Check whether the unit is rent-regulated
- Register with OSE through the official portal before listing anywhere
- Understand that platforms will verify and will refuse unregistered listings
- If any of the above fails, consider whether 30-plus-day stays fit your property instead
- Take New York tax advice specific to your model
Verified official sources
- NYC Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement, Registration Law
- OSE, Registration Rules and Laws
- Short-Term Rental Registration Portal
- Final Rules Governing Registration and Requirements for Short-Term Rentals (PDF)
- NYC311, Short-Term Rental Registration
- NYC Rules, Registration of Short-Term Rentals
Named, not linked
- Local Law 18 of 2022, enacted 9 January 2022
- NYC Administrative Code Title 26, Chapters 31 and 32 (sections 26-3101 to 26-3105 and 26-3201 to 26-3203)
- Chapter 17 of Title 43 of the Rules of the City of New York, the OSE rules, published 3 February 2023 and effective 6 March 2023
- New York State Multiple Dwelling Law
- NYC Housing Maintenance Code and Construction Codes
- Your building's governing documents, house rules or lease
Important disclaimer
This article is not legal, tax or financial advice. It is general information written for a non-specialist reader, by a key management company rather than a law firm.
New York City's position is unusually layered: state law, city administrative code, OSE rules, building-level prohibitions, lease terms and rent regulation all bear on whether a specific unit can lawfully be let short-term, and the answer is frequently no. Registration approval rates are low. The prohibited buildings list changes. Enforcement of pre-existing prohibitions continues alongside the registration regime.
Verify with OSE and read your building's governing documents before acting. Given the penalties and the narrowness of the lawful path, engage a New York attorney before listing anything.
If you spot an error, an omission, or something that needs updating, please tell us and we will fix it.
