Is short-term rental legal in Austin, TX?
A short-term rental is a rental under 30 days. Austin repealed its old Type 1/2/3 system and census-tract caps effective October 1, 2025: STR is now an accessory use allowed citywide under one operator's license — for owners of any residency.
Rules checked October 2026
Run the Austin verdict on your facts
| What counts as a short-term rental | A short-term rental is a rental under 30 days. Austin repealed its old Type 1/2/3 system and census-tract caps effective October 1, 2025: STR is now an accessory use allowed citywide under one operator's license — for owners of any residency. |
|---|---|
| Permit / license | STR Operator's License — issued by Austin Development Services |
| Fee | About $836 the first year ($789 license + $47.30 notification fee) |
| Renewal | Two-year license term |
| Primary-residence rule | No owner-occupancy or primary-residence rule in the rebuilt regime. |
| Whole-home rental | Whole-home and hosted rentals are both allowed under the operator's license, with no city night cap. |
| Night cap | — |
| Guests / occupancy | Occupancy limits under the property maintenance and fire codes |
| Minimum stay | None |
| Zoning | STR is an accessory use citywide since Oct 1, 2025 — the old tract caps and 1,000-ft spacing are deleted law, however many websites still teach them. |
| Density / scarcity | No density cap found in the current rules |
| Fines | Operating without the operator's license draws code-enforcement fines under the city fee/fine schedule, and platforms must delist unlicensed properties (delisting duty in force since July 1, 2026) |
| Taxes | City hotel occupancy tax registration applies on top of the state 6% HOT (platforms collect the state share). |
| Platform duties | Platforms must remove unlicensed listings — an unlicensed Austin listing can disappear without a hearing. |
| State layer | No state preemption (the legislature has repeatedly declined). Cities regulate hard: Austin licenses, Houston registers (first regime, Jan 1 2026), Dallas's single-family ban has been litigated since 2023. Read the city layer, not the state. |
What trips hosts in Austin
- Most ranking guides still teach Austin's repealed Type 1/2/3 system. The rules on this page are the rebuilt ones — checked October 2026.
- Because the rebuild deleted caps, Austin's verdict turns on one fact: licensed or not.
The private layer still applies
These are the city's rules. Your HOA, condo board, lease or mortgage can say no on top of them — that layer is printed as a warning in the checker, never merged into the city's verdict.
Sources: Austin City Code Ch. 4-23 (as rebuilt by Ord. 2025) · Austin Development Services STR program. Rules checked October 2026.