Short-Term Rental Regulations in London: What Landlords Need to Know

Short-let regulation changes periodically — this page reflects the position as understood in 2026. Always confirm current requirements with your local council before letting a property short-term.

The Airbnb 90-Day Rule in London

In Greater London, letting an entire property on a short-term basis is currently capped at 90 nights per calendar year without planning permission. This applies per property, per year, across all booking platforms combined — not per platform individually. Rooms let while the host is present are generally treated differently from whole-property lets.

This is often called the Airbnb 90-day rule, although it applies to every platform. Airbnb automatically limits entire-home listings in London to 90 nights a year unless the host confirms they have planning permission.

How to Get Around the Airbnb 90-Day Rule Legally

There is no loophole, but there are legal ways to earn from a London property beyond 90 short-let nights:

• Apply for planning permission. With approval for change of use, the cap no longer applies. Requirements vary by borough.
• Add longer stays. Stays of several months, such as corporate lets and relocations, are generally treated as ordinary residential lettings rather than short lets. Mixing these with short stays can keep a property earning all year. Check how your council treats them.
• Let a room while you live there. The cap applies to letting an entire home, not a room in a home you live in.
• Plan your nights. Use the 90 nights for your highest-earning dates, and fill the rest with longer lets.

Ichiban Stays tracks nights for landlords and plans around the limit. See our Airbnb management in London service.

Planning Permission Above 90 Nights

Once a property is let short-term for more than 90 nights in a calendar year, most London councils treat this as a change of use requiring planning permission, rather than ordinary residential letting. Approval isn’t automatic and requirements vary by borough.

Enforcement Varies by Borough

How actively this is enforced differs across London — central boroughs with high housing demand tend to apply more scrutiny, often triggered by resident complaints as much as proactive monitoring.

Changes on the Horizon

A mandatory national short-let registration scheme, and a proposed dedicated “C5” planning use class for short-term lets, have both been discussed by government but were not yet in force as of mid-2026. Landlords should keep an eye on official guidance rather than relying on any one article — including this one — as the current state of play can change.

Short-Let Rules Outside London

The 90-night limit only applies in Greater London. Elsewhere in the UK, the rules depend on where your property is:

• England: there is no nightly cap outside London, but your mortgage, lease and insurance must allow short lets, and some councils treat a home let mostly to short-stay guests as a change of use that needs planning permission. A national registration scheme for short-term lets is expected to be fully running by March 2027. See our guides for Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds and Bristol.
• Scotland: every short-term let needs a licence from the council before it takes bookings. The whole of Edinburgh is also a short-term let control area, where letting a whole property that is not your main home usually needs planning permission, and Edinburgh’s 5% visitor levy starts on 24 July 2026. Glasgow‘s visitor levy starts on 25 January 2027.
• Wales: a national register of visitor accommodation is being introduced, councils can add a visitor levy, and self-catering properties must meet letting thresholds to be rated for business rates. See our Cardiff guide.

We check the rules for your specific property before it goes live. See all the areas we cover.

What This Means in Practice

A managed service should be actively tracking a property’s night count and compliance position, not leaving that to the landlord to monitor manually. This is a standard part of how we manage every property at Ichiban Stays.

For more background, see the London Assembly’s coverage of short-term letting regulation: london.gov.uk. For your own property specifically, talk to our team about how we handle compliance.