Where You Can Run a Short Term Rental
in Palm Beach County

You can pass the state vacation rental license, close on the house, and still own a property you are not allowed to rent short term. In Palm Beach County the state sets the floor, and each town builds its own rules on top. A few towns say no outright. Others say yes with a permit. A handful barely ask for anything.

If you are buying to run a short term rental, the town matters as much as the house. Here is where you can and cannot operate, so you check the map before you make an offer.

Where can’t you run a short term rental in Palm Beach County?

A short term rental in Florida is any rental of a whole home for periods of 30 days or less, more than three times a year. In Palm Beach County, two towns block that model no matter where the house sits. Two more block it in residential neighborhoods but still allow it in a narrow set of non-residential zones. The difference matters, so know which is which before you make an offer.

Jump to the full town-by-town table ↓

Blanket bans: rule these out entirely

• Town of Palm Beach. Three-month minimum rental, citywide. A 90-day floor makes nightly and weekly bookings impossible. Not a short term rental market.
• Lake Worth Beach. Short term rentals are not permitted. The city does not license them.

West Palm Beach: the city everyone gets wrong

Search for West Palm Beach short term rental rules and you will be told the city requires a minimum stay of six months and one day in residential zones, which would rule out Airbnb across most of the city. That rule does not exist. We published it on this page ourselves, because every source we could find said the same thing.

In August 2026 we read the city’s zoning code line by line, could not find it, and asked the City directly. The Development Services Department answered in writing: short term rentals are regulated by the State of Florida, not by municipalities. There is no city vacation rental permit, no minimum stay, and no zoning district restriction.

The reason the error spread is that West Palm Beach publishes its code in two places. The main Code of Ordinances leaves out Chapter 94, the zoning code, which lives on a separate site. Anyone who downloads “the West Palm Beach code,” searches it, and finds nothing about short term rentals then repeats whatever they read elsewhere. The six-month figure has been copied between guides for years with no code section behind it.

What actually applies. A city rental tax certificate, required for any rental property, short term or not, along with a code compliance inspection and a local resident agent. Then the same state and county layer as everywhere else in the county: a DBPR vacation rental license, a county business tax receipt, and a 6% county tourist development tax account. On the whole, West Palm Beach asks less of an owner than Tequesta, Wellington, or North Palm Beach.

Check the association, not the zoning. Florida Statute 509.032(7)(b) limits what a city can do. It says nothing about private associations. Plenty of downtown condo and loft buildings carry enforceable minimum-stay covenants of 30 days or longer, while many of the historic single-family neighborhoods have no association at all. In West Palm Beach the recorded covenants decide, not city hall.

Residential is off-limits, but certain zones work: check the parcel

These two are not blanket bans. A standard residential house is out, but a property in the right zone can operate legally. Do not cross the whole city off on its name alone. Pull the parcel’s zoning first.

• Boca Raton. Minimum 30-day stay in residential districts, enforced with escalating code fines of $1,000, then $2,500, then $5,000 and up for repeat violations (City of Boca Raton code enforcement). A standard residential house is off the table, though properties in certain non-residential zones can qualify. Confirm the parcel’s zoning.
• Delray Beach. Delray runs no vacation rental permit at all, which is why most guides call it wide open. It isn’t. The city restricts short term rentals through zoning instead: in single-family districts, renting a home out more than six times in one year is prohibited (Land Development Regulations Section 4.3.3(ZZZ)). That rules out nightly rental in most of residential Delray. In Medium Density Residential (RM) districts, short term rentals are allowed as of April 2026. So Delray Beach works, but there are some restricted areas. Check the zoning district before you make an offer.

The pattern: a house that looks perfect can sit inside a zone that forbids the exact use you are buying it for, and a house you would have skipped can be in a zone that allows it. Verify the parcel, not just the city name.

Why isn’t the state license enough?

Every short term rental in Florida needs a state license from the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Ours clears in one to two business days and costs about $230 a year. We break the process down in our Florida DBPR vacation rental license guide.

The license proves you meet the state standard. It says nothing about whether your town allows the rental. That is a separate layer, and it is where buyers get caught.

Why some towns can restrict short term rentals and others can’t

Florida law protects local rules that were already on the books. Under Florida Statute 509.032(7)(b), any city or county ordinance adopted on or before June 1, 2011 is grandfathered and stays fully enforceable. That is why Delray Beach’s 2009 turnover cap, Lake Park’s 2009 two-turnover cap, and Sewall’s Point’s 180-day minimum (Ord. 352, also from 2009) hold up.

The state tried to take that power back. Senate Bill 280 would have blocked most local vacation rental rules statewide. Governor DeSantis vetoed it on June 27, 2024, writing that the bill would “prevent virtually all local regulation of vacation rentals even though the vacation rental markets are far from uniform across the state” (Executive Office of the Governor). The veto left local control in place. So the town-by-town patchwork is not going away, and checking the local layer is not optional.

Which towns allow short term rentals with an extra step?

Plenty of Palm Beach County towns say yes. They just want a permit, a registration, or an inspection first. The fees are small next to what a Florida short term rental earns, so treat these as a task on your closing checklist, not a reason to walk.

If you buy in one of these, add the local step:

• Tequesta. Vacation rental permit plus inspection. Fee runs about $200 per bedroom.
• Wellington. Vacation Rental Permit as a Special Use, plus an annual business tax receipt. One-time fee around $600 per unit.
• North Palm Beach. Registration plus an annual inspection.
• Boynton Beach. Business tax receipt plus a Certificate of Use and Occupancy.

One wrinkle worth naming early: Wellington’s permit is a special-use approval, so confirm it is attainable for your specific address before you close. A quick call to the town does it. And in any of these towns, if the property sits in an HOA, read the association rules too. An HOA can restrict short term rentals on its own, no matter what the city allows. A property outside an HOA answers only to the city and county.

Where in Palm Beach County are short term rentals easiest?

Some of the best markets also carry the lightest local rules. In these areas there is no city-specific short term rental permit at all. You handle the state license, a Palm Beach County business tax receipt, and the county tourist development tax, and that is the local layer.

• Palm Beach Gardens. No city short term rental permit. County business tax receipt and tourist development tax only.
• Jupiter. No town short term rental permit. County business tax receipt and tourist development tax only.
• Unincorporated Palm Beach County. County business tax receipt and tourist development tax.

These are the zones where a buyer has the most room to run, and they happen to be strong demand areas. On the same kind of home in the same county, well-managed short term rentals out-earn the average one by roughly $34,000 a year, and the spread comes down to operations more than the address. The full numbers are in our Palm Beach County Airbnb income report.

Looking wider? Martin and St Lucie in one glance

If your search runs north into Martin and St Lucie counties, the same two-layer logic applies. A few quick markers:

• Sewall’s Point (Martin). Rentals under 180 days prohibited, grandfathered (Ord. 352, adopted September 22, 2009, before the state cutoff). Not a short term rental market.
• Stuart (Martin). Registration with the city required.
• Fort Pierce (St Lucie). Registration required, about $350 to start and $200 a year to renew.
• Port St Lucie (St Lucie). No city short term rental rules. State license and county tax only, which makes it one of the easier markets in the region.

The full table: short term rental rules by town

Every jurisdiction above in one view, worst to best for a buyer who wants to run a short term rental.

Rules change, and zoning can differ parcel by parcel even inside a town that generally allows short term rentals. Confirm your specific address with the municipality.

Before you make an offer: a four-point check

Run this on any property before you sign:

1. Confirm the municipality and the zoning. Not the mailing city, the actual jurisdiction and zoning district for that parcel. This is where the ban lives.
2. Read the HOA or condo documents. An association can forbid short term rentals even in a town that allows them. City approval does not override the HOA.
3. Verify the minimum-stay rule. A 30-day, 90-day, or 180-day floor ends the nightly-rental business no matter how strong the market is.
4. Budget the full permit stack. State DBPR license, county business tax receipt, county tourist development tax, and any city permit or inspection. We cover the county tax layer in our Florida tourist development tax guide.

Once the property clears the compliance map, the day-to-day is its own job. That is the part we handle. See how short term rental management in Palm Beach County works, or the full scope of our management services.

Frequently asked questions