Three years after Local Law 18 launch, registered short-term rental hosts number over 3,500 in NYC
- Over 460 new short-term rental registrations granted to hosts in fiscal year 2026
- There were 65 attempts to register rent-regulated units, down from 86 last year
OSE’s annual report tracks active registrations by City Council District, and registrations in Brooklyn and Queens outpace the other boroughs.
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Three years after implementation of Local Law 18, which created a registration system for complying with New York City’s short-term rental laws, the number of hosts registered for legal, short-term rentals has surpassed 3,500.
The NYC Office of Special Enforcement (OSE) released its annual report yesterday that said more than 460 new short-term rental registrations were granted to hosts in fiscal year 2026, spanning July 2025 through June 2026, bringing the total number of active, approved hosts to 3,522, up from around 3,000 in 2025.
The report also said that 82 hosts were denied after the applicants received detailed instructions and had at least 90 days to correct deficiencies “but were unable or unwilling to demonstrate the ability to host legally.”
The registration system put teeth into NYC’s laws against illegal short-term rentals, which city officials say contribute to rising rents and lower inventory for New Yorkers seeking long-term housing. Before Local Law 18 took effect, there were nearly 40,000 total Airbnb listings in the city, according to a 2022 estimate from Inside Airbnb, an independent site. Enforcement of Local Law 18 began in September 2023, and by 2024 tens of thousands of illegal listings were removed from listings platforms.
“Local Law 18 is achieving what it set out to do: prevent illegal activity while allowing hosts to know for sure what they allowed to do, ensure online companies can verify the legal status of the transactions they facilitate, and reduce the size of the illegal short-term rental problem to one that can be handled with direct enforcement,” said Christian J. Klossner, executive director of OSE, in a statement.
Leveling the playing field
“At least on paper, the law has leveled the playing field by forcing out corporate-scale operators who could not meet the permanent-residency and host-presence requirements while leaving compliant individual homeowners largely intact,” said Laura Mehl Sugarman, a NYC real estate attorney at Benesch.
“The issue that remains to be seen is how and whether hosts will act within the constructs of the law going forward. OSE estimates that approximately 20 percent of registered hosts are involved in illegal activity, such as renting entire homes or exceeding guest limits," Mehl Sugarman said.
She noted that this was the first year OSE revoked some registrations. OSE said 17 registrations were revoked and 15 are pending; each registration involved making a false statements in an application.
Response from Airbnb
Airbnb, which lost a pair of lawsuits to stop Local Law 18, considers the law “devastating” to homeowners, especially in Brooklyn and Queens. The company said NYC homeowners are losing around $110 million a year in hosting revenue, and approximately $320 million total since Local Law 18 was enacted.
“Local Law 18 has failed to increase housing and lower rent as promised, instead costing NYC homeowners $16,000 annually. We agree with council members and communities advocating for reform that would restore this critical lifeline while having no impact on the rental market,” according to a statement from Airbnb.
Airbnb supports proposed legislation in the City Council that would make three small changes to the city’s short-term rental laws: Allow a host to rent private houses without being on the premises, increase the guest limit from two to four, and permit the use of internal door locks.
Other findings from OSE’s report
Short-term rentals are prohibited for renters or owners in rent-regulated and NYCHA buildings. The report noted that attempts to register rent-regulated units fell compared to the previous year. Fiscal year 2026 saw 65 attempts to register rent-regulated units, down from 86 in fiscal year 2025, and bringing the affordable housing units shielded by the registration law to 618.
NYC’s short-term rental laws also apply to one- and two-family houses, and the report found one- and two-family homes made up more than two-thirds (68 percent) of registered units. More than three-quarters (76 percent) of hosts owned their registered units, and 24 percent are renters.
In addition, 67 percent of summonses for violations were issued to corporate entities (such as an LLC) that owned the properties.
OSE’s annual report tracks active registrations by City Council District, and registrations in Brooklyn and Queens outpace the other boroughs. Active registrations are highest (297) in the 36th District, encompassing Bedford-Stuyvesant and North Crown Heights and represented by Council member Chi Ossé.
Council Districts 34, 37, and 41 in Brooklyn, represented by Council members Jennifer Gutierrez, Sandy Nurse, and Darlene Mealy, had the next highest total active registrations.
Impact on outer boroughs
In July, the Pratt Center for Community Development released a report analyzing Local Law 18 and its impacts on low- and moderate-income homeowners in one- to two-family homes and professional investors in the short-term rental market.
One of the key findings in the Pratt report was that the new short-term rental regulations primarily benefit homeowners in outer-borough neighborhoods of color. “Prior to the registration system, the short-term rental market was concentrated around central Manhattan and disproportionately benefited professional hosts,” Pratt researchers wrote.
How Local Law 18 works
Local Law 18 requires owners and renters to register their short-term rentals with OSE. Hosts then get a registration number to display in listings. Sites such as Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, and others are prohibited from posting listings for unregistered short-term rentals.
The new law did not change NYC’s existing rules for short-term rentals: Owners or renters cannot rent an entire apartment for fewer than 30 days, even if the host owns or lives in the building. Short-term rentals are only allowed if the host remains in the same unit as guests, and no more than two guests are permitted.
Local Law 18 also established the Prohibited Buildings List, which now totals over 14,000 buildings. Boards and property managers at buildings that do not allow short-term rentals can request to add their building to the list and OSE will deny registration requests for buildings on the list.
