Short Term Rental Rules in Delray Beach
We co-host short term rentals across Broward County and we would take a house in Delray Beach. This page is about one thing most guides get wrong, including the ones written this year: in Delray, whether you can rent short term is a question about the zoning district your parcel sits in, and the answer is different for a condo downtown than for a house in a single family neighbourhood. Most people find it straightforward here, and that is not luck. It is which kind of property they bought.
stays hosted across every house we run.
five star reviews, written by guests about the house and the way it is run.
paid out to the owners whose houses we look after.
How it works.
Send the address
That is all we need to start. We look at the house, the block, what comparable properties we already run are earning, and what the licensing position is.
We come back with numbers
What it should earn, what the licensing will cost and take, and what we would change before it goes live. If the answer is that you are better off as you are, we say so.
We set it up under your account
Your listing, your reviews, your Superhost status. We take co-host access rather than ownership. Photography, copy, pricing and the licensing chain get sorted in this step.
We run it
Pricing, messaging, turnovers, maintenance, compliance dates and the two in the morning phone call. You get paid and you get left alone.
One fee. What it covers, and what it does not.
We quote 15 to 20 percent depending on the size and scope of the house, plus a one time $500 licensing fee at onboarding. The percentage is negotiable and we will not name one before walking the property.
Included
- Guest messaging, every hour of the day
- Dynamic pricing, reviewed continuously rather than set once
- Turnovers and cleaning coordination
- Maintenance and vendor management
- Professional photography
- Listing copy and channel setup
- The licensing calendar, filed on time
- Monthly owner statements
Not charged
- No cleaning fee markup
- No maintenance coordination charge
- No platform or software fee
- No charge for photography
- No long contract, and no fee in a month the house earns nothing
What a house here actually earns.
Across the houses we run, the daily rate spans roughly $85 for a one bedroom apartment up to about $1,000 for a six bedroom house near the beach, and occupancy has run near 70 percent over the trailing twelve months. Those are our own numbers across the whole portfolio, and every house behind them is in Broward County rather than Delray. Treat them as the shape of the thing rather than a forecast for your property.
What the licensing actually takes in Delray Beach.
Most pages about this are vague because whoever wrote them has never filed one. We do not run a house in Delray Beach yet, so this is read off the regulation and the application forms rather than off our renewal tracker, and it is confirmed with the authority before anyone pays anything.
- There is no city vacation rental permit to obtain
- This is why Delray feels easy compared with Broward. There is no municipal short term rental registration to file, no city inspection to pass and no annual certificate to renew. Nothing at the city gates you before you list. What exists instead is a zoning rule, and zoning is enforced when somebody complains rather than checked when you apply.
- The rule only exists in five zoning districts
- The city's definition of a transient residential use applies only to property in Single Family, Rural Residential, Planned Residential Development, Low Density Residential and Medium Density Residential districts. Outside those, the section does not reach your property at all. A great deal of what is let short term in Delray sits downtown or in mixed use zoning, which is a large part of why the question rarely comes up.
- Where it does bite: single family zoning
- In Single Family, Rural Residential and Planned Residential Development districts, letting a dwelling for under 12 months with more than six turnovers in a year is a violation. Six turnovers is an average two month stay, so a house in a single family neighbourhood cannot be run as a weekend rental. That is the real constraint and it is worth knowing before buying such a house for that purpose.
- Medium Density Residential was expressly permitted in April 2026
- Ordinance 21-26 added transient residential use to the list of principal uses permitted in the Medium Density Residential district, subject to the same section. That is the district a great many Delray condos and multi family units sit in. How the permission and the six turnover line in that section fit together for a specific parcel is a question for the city, and we would ask them rather than publish a guess.
- Why April 2026 changed things, and why old guides are wrong
- The city adopted its transient use rules in 2009, before Florida's 2011 state preemption, which is why they survive: the statute exempts local rules adopted on or before 1 June 2011. Tighter amendments passed in 2012 came after that date and were therefore preempted. Ordinance 21-26 stripped those out and readopted only the 2009 provisions. The single family limit went from three turnovers back up to six. Anything written before April 2026 describes rules the city has since removed.
- Owners and their families are exempt
- The regulation exempts the property owner and their family regardless of how much time they spend at the dwelling in a year. A house you genuinely use yourself sits in a different position from one bought purely to let.
- There is a hardship waiver
- For a property caught by the limit, the regulations allow a waiver for undue economic hardship, decided by the city within 45 days of a complete submission. It is documentation heavy: purchase price and date, two years of assessments, two years of taxes, debt service, appraisals, any listing history, and two years of gross income and cash flow. We cannot tell you the success rate and nobody honestly can.
- A state licence is not permission from the city
- A Florida DBPR transient public lodging licence lets you operate a lodging business in the state. It does not override a city zoning rule about a particular parcel. That is the most expensive misunderstanding available in this market, and it is easy to make precisely because the state licence is the only thing anyone asks you for.
- Palm Beach County is not Broward County
- Delray sits in Palm Beach County, so the tourist development tax account, the business tax receipt and the county side of the chain differ from the ones we file in Fort Lauderdale, Wilton Manors and Pompano Beach. We do not carry a Broward answer across a county line and neither should anyone quoting you.
- What we check before quoting
- The zoning district of the parcel, first, because everything else follows from it. Then the county chain, then the state licence. It takes one lookup and it is the difference between a straightforward setup and a problem that surfaces after you have bought.
There is no city permit fee to budget for in Delray, which is the opposite of the position in Broward. Budget instead for the state licence and the Palm Beach County chain, and spend the first five minutes on the zoning district rather than on any of it. Fees and dates are what we hold as current and the city does change them, so treat this as the shape of the year rather than the last word, and confirm anything you are about to pay.
The short answers.
Can I run an Airbnb in Delray Beach?
Usually yes, and for most properties it is straightforward: there is no city vacation rental permit to obtain at all. The exception is a dwelling in a Single Family, Rural Residential or Planned Residential Development zoning district, where letting for under 12 months with more than six turnovers a year is a violation. Which district your parcel is in decides the answer.
Why do I hear it is easy here when Fort Lauderdale is such a process?
Because it genuinely is easier, and for a specific reason. Broward municipalities run permit regimes: an application, an inspection, an annual certificate, fees. Delray has none of that for short term rentals. What it has is a zoning provision, and zoning surfaces when a neighbour complains rather than when you apply. Easy to start is not the same as unregulated, and the distinction only matters if you are in one of the five districts the rule names.
What changed in April 2026?
Ordinance 21-26, adopted 21 April 2026. Delray's transient use rules date from 2009 and survive Florida's 2011 preemption because the statute exempts local rules adopted on or before 1 June 2011. Amendments the city passed in 2012 came after that date and were preempted, so this ordinance removed them and readopted the 2009 text. The single family turnover limit went back up from three to six, and transient residential use was added to the permitted uses of the Medium Density Residential district. Both changes are loosenings.
I want to buy a single family house in Delray to rent short term. Should I?
Check the zoning district before you make an offer. If it is Single Family, Rural Residential or Planned Residential Development, the city treats more than six turnovers a year as a violation, which is not a short term rental business. That does not mean it never happens; it means you would be carrying a risk that only appears when someone complains, and you should decide that knowingly rather than find out later.
What if I use the house myself?
The regulation exempts the owner and their family regardless of how much time they spend there. That is written into the rule rather than being a matter of interpretation.
I already have a Florida state licence. Does that cover me?
No, and this is worth being clear about. A DBPR transient public lodging licence is state permission to run a lodging business. It says nothing about whether a particular parcel may be used that way, which is a zoning question the city decides separately. The state licence is often the only thing anyone asks you for, which is exactly why the misunderstanding is common.
Do you manage properties in Delray Beach?
We would, and we have staff close enough to. We do not run a house there today, and we would rather say so than imply otherwise. If you have a property here we run it the way we run everything else: under your own account, your listing, your reviews, your Superhost status.
What does short term rental management cost?
We quote 15 to 20 percent of the nightly rate depending on the size and scope of the property, plus a one time $500 licensing fee at onboarding. No cleaning markup, no maintenance coordination charge, no platform fee. The percentage is negotiable and we will not commit to a number before walking the house.
What should I do first?
Find out which zoning district the parcel is in. Not the neighbourhood, the zoning district. For most Delray properties the answer is that there is nothing in your way; for a house in single family zoning it is the whole question. Send us the address and we will look it up with you.
Where does this come from?
Sections 4.3.3(ZZZ) and 4.4.6(B) of the city's Land Development Regulations and the definition in Appendix A, all as amended by Ordinance No. 21-26, read from the ordinance itself rather than a summary. Cities amend these rules and this one was amended four months ago, so confirm anything you are about to rely on with the city directly.
Send us the address.
We come back with what it would earn, what the licensing in Delray Beach actually takes, and what we would change before it goes live. If the answer is that you are better off as you are, we say so.