New Report Reveals Number of New Yorkers Registered to Host Legal Short-Term Rentals Surpassed 3,500 for First Time

• New data shows more New Yorkers are taking advantage of legal home-sharing, with 76% of short-term rental registrations issued to homeowners & majority registered to 1- or 2-family homes.
• September marks three years since online booking companies came into compliance with Local Law 18, which created the city’s short-term rental registration system to enforce longstanding housing and safety laws & to protect NYC housing stock.
• Report details Office of Special Enforcement’s actions to hold illegal operators accountable for converting permanent housing to rentals, with 67% of summonses issued to corporate entities.

NEW YORK –

The New York City Office of Special Enforcement (OSE) released new data Tuesday that highlights the effectiveness of Local Law 18 (LL18) in protecting the city’s housing supply, neighborhoods, and residents, three years after online booking companies began complying with the city’s short-term rental registration law. 

  

Despite false claims that the registration law is a ban on short-term rentals, the annual LL18 report – along with complimentary report, LL87 – reveals OSE granted more than 460 new registrations in FY26 (July 2025 through June 2026), raising the total number of active approved hosts to over 3,500. In addition, 82% of denied applications were only denied after the applicants received detailed instructions and at least 90 days to correct deficiencies – but were unable or unwilling to demonstrate the ability to host legally. 

 

Illegal short-term rentals have been linked to rising rents and removing homes from the local housing market that would otherwise be available to New Yorkers seeking long-term housing.  

 

LL18 established a registration system that gave the city the tools to enforce New York’s preexisting and longstanding housing and safety laws and prevent online companies and illegal operators from ignoring them.  

 

“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 the Office of Special Enforcement. “Local Law 18 is not a ban; it simply prevents rentals that were already illegal.” 

 

“The Office of Special Enforcement’s work has established a clear regulatory system that allows new short-term rental registrations where legal, while keeping important housing opportunities on the market for New Yorkers, in line with local law. My thanks to OSE and other City partners for their guidance and support for New York homeowners, and their clear data updates in these new materials,” said Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning Leila Bozorg. 
 

The new reports show: 

• More than three-quarters (76%) of hosts owned their registered units, triple the number who are renters (24%). 

• One- and two-family homes made up more than two-thirds (68%) of registered units.  

• Sixty-five applications for rent-regulated units were denied, bringing the affordable housing units protected by the registration law to 618. 

• Seventy-four percent of applications denied for not making necessary corrections involved applicants failing to prove they were the permanent occupant. Two-thirds (67%) of summonses for violations were issued to corporate entities (such as an LLC) that owned the properties (compared to 33% issued to individuals). 

• Sixty percent of violations were issued for violations in buildings with three or more units. 

 

Data also shows that the registration system continues to keep rent-regulated units out of the short-term rental market. Attempts to register rent-regulated units, which is prohibited by LL18, fell compared to the previous year. FY26 saw 65 attempts to register rent-regulated units, down from 86 in FY25. 

 

OSE is committed to working with potential and registered hosts to achieve compliance before denying applications or taking enforcement action. FY26 marked the first wave of revocations, with 17 registrations revoked and another 15 pending. Each of these actions involved registrants who made false statements in their applications. 

 

The Office of Special Enforcement’s FY26 annual report on LL18, the Short-Term Rental Registration Law, as well as the annual report on 2025 short-term rental complaints and enforcement, LL87, are available to the public and can be downloaded at: 

https://www.nyc.gov/site/specialenforcement/about/data-reports.page 

About Local Law 18

Since the late 1960s, New York City’s laws have restricted rentals of less than 30 days in homes to two guests staying with permanent occupants. OSE estimates that by 2018, as many as 18,000 units of permanent housing were being used as illegal short-term rentals. In 2022, Local Law 18 created a new registration and verification program to protect New York City’s housing stock.

The law: 1) requires hosts to register with OSE and operate the rentals in compliance with the city’s existing laws; 2) prohibits registration for rent-regulated and NYCHA units; 3) created a mechanism to prevent registrations from being issued in buildings where short-term rentals are prohibited by the owner; and 4) mandates that booking services verify the status of a registration before processing transactions. More than 3,000 host registrations have been granted, and more than 14,000 property owners and managers have placed their buildings on the prohibited list.

The full text of Local Law 18 can be accessed and downloaded online at www.nyc.gov/assets/specialenforcement/downloads/pdfs/LL18-of-2022.pdf.

About the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement

The Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement (OSE) is an innovative task force that addresses public safety and quality-of-life issues related to illegal and unregulated industries. The multi-agency team is currently comprised of legal, inspection, and investigation team members from the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (which oversees OSE), the Law Department, the Department of Buildings, the Fire Department, and the Sheriff’s Offices. The office’s main focus has been preserving New York City’s housing stock, which has a vacancy rate of 1.4%. OSE also conducts illegal massage parlor inspections and has handled enforcement of an array of special projects, such as closing counterfeit product bazaars and overseeing programs to ensure compliance with COVID-era health and consumer protections. For more information, visit nyc.gov/ose.

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