London, United Kingdom Short-Term Rental Regulations: A 2026 Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in London and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that you can, and there's no licence to buy, no register to join, and no inspector to book before your first guest arrives. The catch is a single number, and it shapes everything else on this page.

Ninety nights. That's the ceiling across the whole of Greater London, all 32 boroughs plus the City of London, and it's applied since section 44 of the Deregulation Act 2015 came into force on 26 May 2015. Let a home as temporary sleeping accommodation for more than ninety nights in a calendar year and you've made a material change of use, which needs planning permission from your borough. Airbnb polices that ceiling on its own account, mind you. Its help centre says the platform will "automatically limit entire home listings in Greater London to 90 nights a year" unless you've told it you hold permission to host more often.

So let's walk through what it actually takes to do this properly: where the ninety nights come from, the second condition almost nobody notices, what permission costs in 2026, the tax layers that decide whether the numbers still work, how hard a borough is likely to push, and who to ring when you get stuck. Everything below comes from UK legislation, government guidance or a London council's own pages, checked in July 2026, and where something is still moving I've said so. Before you commit to any of it, run the property through BNBCalc first.

Starting a Short-Term Rental Business in London

That ninety-night ceiling has two halves, and the second half is where investors get caught out.

Start with the base rule. Under the Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1973, using residential premises anywhere in Greater London as temporary sleeping accommodation counts as a material change of use, so it needs planning permission.

The Deregulation Act then carved out an exception, and the inserted section 25A only bites when two conditions are met together. The first is the familiar one, in that nights of use in the calendar year "does not exceed ninety". The second is the one that surprises people, because the person providing the accommodation must also have "been liable to pay council tax under Part 1 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992" for each of those nights.

Read that second condition slowly. It was written for someone who lives in London and pays council tax on the flat they're letting out, rather than for a property held as a pure letting business.

Tower Hamlets spells the consequence out on its own short-term lets page. You need planning permission if lettings exceed 90 nights a year or if "you are not liable to pay council tax on the property you are letting out on a short-term basis." So fall outside the council tax condition and you don't get ninety free nights. You get none.

There's a definition worth knowing too, since it opens an exit. The City of London's planning enforcement team defines temporary sleeping accommodation as accommodation "occupied by the same person for fewer than 90 consecutive nights" and provided for money. A single guest who stays ninety consecutive nights or longer, then, isn't in temporary sleeping accommodation at all. Corporate lets, relocations and medical stays sit outside this regime completely, which is why so much central London inventory runs on three-month bookings.

Two more things can stop you before planning law ever gets involved. Boroughs hold a reserve power under section 25B to direct that the ninety-night exception doesn't apply to named premises or a named area, where that's needed to protect local amenity.

Your lease may already forbid the whole idea, too. Westminster puts it bluntly to its own leaseholders: "Council leaseholders are not permitted to short-let their property. Terms of the lease supersede the Deregulation Act (2015)." That logic isn't unique to council leases, and London is a city of leasehold flats, so do read your lease before you read another word of planning law.

Scale-wise, you'd be joining a large and largely invisible market. London Councils, the cross-party body representing the boroughs, put the number at roughly 43,000 short-term lets in May 2024, or one in every 85 London homes, and reported that at least 11% of them appeared to exceed the ninety-day limit.

Short-Term Rental Licensing Requirement in London

Go through all that and you might expect a licence at the end of it. There isn't one, and that absence confuses more hosts than any rule does.

England has no short-term let licence and no register in force. The government's own guidance for holiday-home owners, updated on 15 May 2026, still says only that a mandatory national registration scheme "is expected to begin in 2026".

Section 228 of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 has obliged the Secretary of State to make those regulations since December 2023, yet none have been made. The design statement promises something "light touch, low cost and simple to use", and that's as specific as the official record gets. I couldn't find a published launch date or a fee anywhere, so treat any blog quoting one as guesswork.

What you might need instead is planning permission, and only if you're going past ninety nights. The fee is the same one any change of use attracts. MHCLG's fee schedule for applications in England from 1 April 2026 sets "the making of a material change in use of a building or land" at £610, uprated by the 3.8% September CPI figure. You apply to your borough, usually through the Planning Portal.

Whether you'll get it is another matter. The City of London tells applicants outright that its Local Plan policies "resist the loss of permanent housing to short-term lets", and that any application gets judged against the London Plan 2021 alongside the local plan. Every borough in inner London works from a similar housing-supply position.

So speak to a planning officer before you spend the £610. A refusal buys you nothing but a paper trail the enforcement team can read later.

Airbnb's own limit is separate from all of this, and it's the one you'll feel first. The platform caps entire home listings in Greater London at 90 nights per calendar year and lets hosts who hold permission claim an exemption in the Regulations tab of their account.

Keep in mind that the cap runs per platform, whereas the law counts every night the property was used as temporary sleeping accommodation. Nights sold through Vrbo, Booking.com or your own website count towards ninety just the same, so stacking platforms to get past the Airbnb block is the fastest way to build the evidence file against yourself.

Required Documents for London Short-Term Rentals

Records cut both ways in London, then. No licence means nobody hands you a checklist, though the duties still exist. They arrive from four different directions, and none of them will chase you until something has already gone wrong.

• A written fire risk assessment. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to paying-guest accommodation, and section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 tightened it from 1 October 2023 by requiring the responsible person to record the assessment and by deleting the word "significant" from what has to go in that record. Recording only the headline findings no longer clears the bar.
• Fire safety guidance you can show you followed. The government publishes advice for small paying-guest accommodation, updated in January 2025, covering small B&Bs, guest houses and self-catering lets, plus fuller sleeping-accommodation guidance issued under Article 50 of the same Order.
• An annual gas safety record. The HSE is unambiguous that duty holders "must ensure that a gas safety check is done every year on each gas appliance/flue", and it lists landlords, hotels and B&Bs among them. Use a Gas Safe registered engineer and keep the certificate where a guest could find it.
• Electrical safety evidence. The government's holiday-let guidance points owners at HSE electrical safety guidance and the rented-sector standards, so an in-date installation report and PAT-tested appliances are the sensible reading of it.
• Your council tax bill, in your name. It's not a form anyone collects, but it's a statutory condition of the ninety-night exception, so it's the single document your defence rests on.
• Written consent from whoever can veto you. Your freeholder or managing agent, your mortgage lender, and your insurer. Westminster warns landlords that short letting can lead to "invalidation of insurance policies" and "breach of mortgage terms", and an unpaid claim after a guest floods a flat is a far more common disaster than a planning fine.
• A night-by-night booking log. Across every platform and every direct booking, kept for years rather than months. When an officer knocks, this is the only thing that proves you stayed under ninety.

London Short-Term Rental Taxes

Keep that booking log tidy, because the same record is what your tax position rests on, and the tax layer is where London short lets have changed most since 2024. There's no bed tax, no tourist levy and no city occupancy charge to collect from guests. What there is instead lands on you.

Charge	Rate	Collected by
Income tax on rental profit	Your normal income tax rates	HMRC, via Self Assessment
VAT on the booking	20%, once turnover passes £90,000	You, remitted to HMRC
Council tax	Band rate, plus up to a 100% second-home premium	Your London borough
Business rates (instead of council tax)	Rateable value based	Your borough, valued by HMRC
Overnight visitor levy	None in force	Nobody, as of July 2026

Income tax is the layer that moved. The furnished holiday lettings regime, which used to hand short-let owners full mortgage interest relief, capital allowances and business asset disposal relief, was abolished for tax years beginning on or after 6 April 2025.

Your London Airbnb is now taxed as an ordinary UK property business, exactly like a long let. Any model built on a pre-2025 spreadsheet is overstating your return, so make sure you rebuild it before you buy anything. Hosts letting rooms inside their own home can still use Rent a Room relief, worth £7,500 a year, or £3,750 where the income is shared.

VAT catches larger operators and surprises them, since holiday and short-stay accommodation is standard-rated at 20% rather than exempt the way residential letting is. Registration becomes compulsory once your taxable turnover passes £90,000 in any 12 months, and one central London flat at a decent nightly rate gets closer to that line than owners expect. No platform remits this for you.

Then there's the council tax question, which in London is a planning question wearing a disguise. A property let commercially for short periods is rated as a business in England once it's been available for at least 140 nights and actually let for at least 70 nights in the previous 12 months.

Sitting on the business rates list means you're no longer liable for council tax on it, and council tax liability is the second condition of the ninety-night exception. Watch out for that loop before you apply for a rating assessment, and put the question to your borough in writing.

Staying on council tax carries its own bill now. Boroughs have been able to charge a second-home premium since 1 April 2025, and Waltham Forest, to take one, charges a 100% premium, twice the usual council tax, on a furnished property with no permanent resident. The premium is set borough by borough, so check yours rather than assuming.

One administrative change is worth noting because it will send you to the wrong phone number otherwise. The Valuation Office Agency, which handled council tax bandings and rateable values for decades, became part of HM Revenue & Customs in April 2026. Valuation questions now go through HMRC.

As for a tourist tax, England has none and London has none. The government has consulted on giving mayoral strategic authorities the power to create local overnight visitor levies, covering which accommodation types would be in scope and how rates would be calculated, and that consultation closed on 18 February 2026. Whether London ends up inside the scheme, and at what rate, isn't settled on any page I could open, so I'd treat it as a live risk to your 2027 pricing rather than a cost today.

Do note that Airbnb collects no UK accommodation tax on your behalf anywhere, although platforms do report your income to HMRC annually under the digital platform reporting rules.

UK Wide Short-Term Rental Rules

None of those tax rules stop at the M25, yet the licensing question changes the moment you leave England. There is no UK-wide short-term let statute at all, because housing, planning and licensing are devolved, and the four nations have gone in four directions.

England, and therefore London, has the lightest regime and the emptiest statute book. Section 228 of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 created the duty to make a register and nothing has been made under it, so a London host in 2026 registers with nobody. The much-publicised C5 planning use class for short-term lets, announced in February 2024, has never been laid as legislation either, so be careful with any guide that describes it as current law.

Scotland went the opposite way. Every short-term let there has needed a licence from the council since 1 October 2022 under the 2022 licensing order, operating without one is a criminal offence, and the licence number has to appear in every advert. Fees are set by each council on a cost-recovery basis, so an Edinburgh flat and a Highland cottage don't pay the same.

Wales is mid-transition. Registration with the Welsh Revenue Authority is free and mandatory, opening in October 2026 with a deadline of 31 March 2027, and missing it starts at £100 per premises and climbs to £1,400. A Welsh visitor levy follows no earlier than 1 April 2027, at 75p or £1.30 per person per night depending on the accommodation type.

Northern Ireland has been the strictest for years, in that the Tourism (Northern Ireland) Order 1992 makes it an offence to offer tourist accommodation without a certificate from Tourism NI.

So if you're comparing a London flat against a Cardiff or Edinburgh one, remember that you're comparing four legal systems, not four markets.

Does London Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Compared with Edinburgh, where hosting unlicensed is a crime from night one, London's enforcement is slower, patchier and considerably harder to predict. The honest answer is that the legal risk is severe and the practical odds of getting caught are modest, which is a genuinely uncomfortable combination to build a business on.

Start with what a borough can do. Exceeding ninety nights counts as an unauthorised change of use, which on its own carries no criminal liability at all. The borough investigates, and Westminster is candid that "this will require multiple visits to establish the required evidence". It then serves an enforcement notice requiring the use to stop. Tower Hamlets copies those notices to freeholders, leaseholders, insurers and mortgage providers, which tends to end the argument faster than any fine does.

Ignore the notice, though, and it turns criminal. Under section 179 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, failing to comply is an offence carrying a fine with no upper limit, and the court must have regard to any financial benefit that accrued from the breach. Offences can be charged day by day, so successive convictions for a continuing breach are available.

Tower Hamlets confirms that shift on its own page, noting fines "have recently been increased from £20,000 to an unlimited amount." You'll still find £20,000 printed on some borough pages, including the City of London's, and that figure is out of date.

Boroughs have other tools they reach for when the problem is behaviour rather than paperwork. Westminster can serve a Community Protection Notice for antisocial use, breach of which costs up to £20,000 for a business or £2,500 for an individual, and it "can consider serving a Closure Order, restricting all access to the property for up to six months". A closure order on a flat you're paying a mortgage on is a worse outcome than any fine on this page.

The exposure window got longer, too. Since 25 April 2024, the enforcement time limit in England is ten years for any breach of planning control, so a use you started quietly in 2026 is still actionable in 2035.

Set against all that, capacity is the reality check. London Councils told government in 2024 that "monitoring lettings numbers and taking enforcement action is proving a near-impossible task for hard-pressed local authorities", and its own estimate had 11% of London's short-term lets already over the limit. Prosecutions are rare because proving the night count is slow work.

So the thing that stops most London hosts isn't a council officer at all. It's Airbnb's calendar quietly closing at ninety.

How to Start a Short-Term Rental Business in London

Given that the ninety nights are the constraint rather than the paperwork, the order below still matters more than it looks. The early steps tell you whether the later ones are worth the money.

1. Read your lease, then your mortgage, then your insurance. Any one of the three can end this before planning law is relevant, and a leasehold covenant restricting the flat to use as a private residence is common in London.
2. Confirm you're the person liable for council tax on the property. No council tax liability, no ninety-night exception, and every single night becomes an unauthorised change of use.
3. Check whether your borough has issued a section 25B direction for your building or your area. It's rare, but it removes the exception entirely where it applies.
4. Decide, honestly, whether ninety nights pays. Model it against a long let and against a three-month corporate let, since a stay of ninety consecutive nights or more falls outside the short-let regime altogether.
5. Sort fire, gas and electrical safety before the first booking. Recorded fire risk assessment, annual Gas Safe check, in-date electrical report.
6. Set up the booking log on day one, covering every platform plus direct bookings, and reconcile it monthly against your ninety.
7. Only then consider planning permission, at £610 for a change of use, and speak to a borough planning officer first about whether it stands any chance.
8. Register for Self Assessment, watch the £90,000 VAT line, and rebuild the numbers without the old furnished holiday lettings reliefs.
9. Diarise the register. England's national scheme is still expected to arrive, and the boroughs want it badly, so assume you'll be registering at some point.

Who to Contact in London about Short-Term Rental Regulations and Zoning?

Diarising a register that doesn't exist yet is the easy part. Finding someone to ask about the rules that do exist is harder, because no London-wide short-term let office exists either. The authority you want is whichever of the 33 councils covers your postcode, and their teams differ a fair bit in how they handle this.

Your borough's planning enforcement team

This is the first call for anything to do with the ninety nights, permission, or a notice you've received.

• Tower Hamlets planning: [email protected], 020 7364 5009
• Westminster City Council: Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6QP, 020 7641 6000, contact centre open 9am to 5pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and 9am to 4pm on Wednesday
• City of London: planning enforcement takes reports through its investigation form or by email to the planning enforcement team

Ask for the planning enforcement team by name rather than the planning switchboard, since development control and enforcement are different desks and only one of them owns short lets.

Council tax and business rates valuations

Council tax billing, and any second-home premium, belongs to your borough. Valuations and rateable values belong to HMRC now that the Valuation Office has moved inside it.

• Valuation Office (HMRC), England: 03000 501 501, open 9am to 4:30pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and 10am to 4:30pm on Wednesday, closed on bank holidays

Income tax and VAT

• HMRC Self Assessment: 0300 200 3310, or +44 161 931 9070 from outside the UK, Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm, closed bank holidays
• By post: Self Assessment, HM Revenue and Customs, BX9 1AS, United Kingdom

Fire safety

Your enforcing authority is London Fire Brigade, and the duty sits with you as the responsible person under the Fire Safety Order. Start from the government's small paying-guest accommodation guidance and get a competent assessor in if the property is anything other than a simple flat.

What Do Airbnb Hosts in London on Reddit and Bigger Pockets Think about Local Regulations?

Those contact lists tell you where the friction sits, and host conversation tends to circle the same four things. What follows is my read of the recurring themes rather than a survey. I wasn't able to read Reddit directly for this refresh, since it blocks automated access, so please weigh this section accordingly.

• The ninety nights are treated as the business model, not the rule. Experienced London hosts talk about maximising rate over ninety high-season nights rather than filling a calendar. That's a different operation from a year-round short let, and it's why London ADR conversations look nothing like Manchester's.
• The council tax condition catches newcomers repeatedly. Owners who set up a company, moved the property to business rates, and assumed they'd bought themselves more flexibility discover they've lost the exception altogether. Tower Hamlets says it plainly on its own page, and it's still the thing hosts most often learn late.
• Platform stacking is the open secret, and it's the riskiest habit going. Hosts describe moving to Booking.com or direct bookings once Airbnb's counter runs out. The law counts every night regardless of who sold it, and each extra platform leaves another record a borough can request.
• Nearly everyone expects the register to land eventually. London Councils has been pressing government for stronger controls and more enforcement resource since 2024, and boroughs have asked for exactly the data they currently lack. Whether that arrives in 2026 or later, the direction hasn't wavered.

Before you commit, do check what those ninety nights are worth on paper. Start with the numbers behind the London market, then set them beside a long let and a corporate let in BNBCalc instead of judging the nightly rate alone.

Ninety nights is a strange thing to build on, since it turns a rental property into a seasonal one and rewards whoever is most ruthless about which ninety they pick. Any cap works that way in the end, wherever you host. It stops being a question of how many nights you can sell and turns into a question of which ones you'd choose.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in London in 2026?

Yes, for up to 90 nights a calendar year. Section 44 of the Deregulation Act 2015 lets residential premises in Greater London be used as temporary sleeping accommodation without planning permission, provided the total stays at or under 90 nights in the year and the provider is liable for council tax on the property. Go beyond either condition and you need planning permission from your borough for a material change of use.

Do you need a licence or registration to run a short-term let in London?

No. England has no short-term let licence and no register in force, London included. Section 228 of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 obliges the government to create a national register, and government guidance updated in May 2026 says it is expected to begin in 2026, but no regulations have been made. Scotland requires a council licence, and Wales opens registration with the Welsh Revenue Authority in October 2026.

What happens if you exceed the 90-night limit in London?

The borough treats it as an unauthorised change of use and can serve a planning enforcement notice requiring the use to stop. Ignoring that notice is a criminal offence under section 179 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, punishable by a fine with no upper limit, and the court must consider any financial benefit gained. Councils can also serve Community Protection Notices and closure orders, and the enforcement window in England runs ten years.

How much does planning permission for a London short-term let cost?

The application fee for a material change in the use of a building or land in England is £610 from 1 April 2026, set by the government's annual fee indexation. That's the fee alone, before any planning consultant or drawings. Permission is far from automatic in central London, where local plan policies resist losing permanent homes to short lets, so speak to a borough planning officer before paying.

Do London Airbnb hosts pay a tourist tax?

Not as of July 2026. England has no visitor levy, and no London borough charges one. The government consulted on giving mayoral strategic authorities the power to create local overnight visitor levies, and that consultation closed in February 2026, so the position may change. Airbnb collects and remits no UK accommodation tax on hosts' behalf today, though platforms do report host income to HMRC each year.

Last verified: July 2026. Every ordinance, tax rate, state law, and contact detail in this guide links to or comes from its official source.