City Watch
Short-term rental rules in Palm Beach, FL
How Palm Beach regulates short-term rentals: the rules that apply, their sources, and pending changes.
Rules here limit which homes may operate as short-term rentals, how many, where, or for how many nights a year.
- Residential zoning districts permit ONLY single-family dwellings (+ essential services) by exhaustive permitted-use list; transient/short-term lodging is not a permitted residential use
- Zoning definition of 'dwelling' (§134-2) requires a building 'used exclusively for residential occupancy' and expressly excludes hotels, motels, motor lodges, boardinghouses, lodginghouses, tourist courts and tourist homes — so transient lodging cannot be a residential 'dwelling' use
- Supply-exclusion device first adopted pre-2011-06-01: §134-837 (R-A) permitted-use list Ord. No. 2-74 (3-26-1974); grandfathered under Fla. Stat. §509.032(7)
- No 90-day minimum stay applies: §134-2 'family' is a household-composition definition (individual / related persons / not more than three unrelated persons as a single housekeeping unit) with no duration or minimum-stay element
Based on: Town of Palm Beach Code of Ordinances Ch. 134 (Zoning): §134-2 'Dwelling' and 'Family' definitions (Ord. No. 2-74
Summary of the rule
§134-837 ('Permitted uses') — 'The permitted uses in the R-A estate residential district are as follows: (1) Single-family dwellings. (2) Essential services.' Exhaustive permitted-use list; transient/tourist lodging is not listed and is therefore excluded from the residential district. History: (Ord. No. 2-74, schedule B, 3-26-74; ... Ord. No. 16-2012, § 2, 12-12-12). First adopted 3-26-1974 (pre-2011-06-01).
View the ordinance source ↗✓ Verified
Last reviewed Sep 9, 2026 · Sources · Report an error
Pending legislation
Monitoring Palm Beach · system last checked Nov 9, 2026
Owners in Palm Beach
Following Palm Beach adds it to the Followed cities list on your ASTRO dashboard, linked to its city page.
Add a home to the ASTRO registry and confirm ownership of it.
City Watch tracks changes from public sources — council agendas, state bills, local news — not a complete legal compendium.
A city permit is not the whole picture — HOA, condominium, deed, or lease rules may be stricter.
City Watch provides good-faith summaries of publicly available information as of the review date shown. Rules, enforcement, and permit availability can change, and summaries may contain errors or omissions. Ratings describe the general regulatory environment; they do not establish whether a particular property or stay is permitted. This is general information, not legal advice. Before buying, listing, or hosting, verify applicable requirements with the responsible authorities and review any HOA, condominium, deed, or lease restrictions.