Which Miami Buildings Allow Short-Term Rentals

A Miami condominium can be rented short term only if three separate locks open at once: a state licence, a city lodging entitlement on the building, and permission in the recorded declaration. In practice that narrows the list to a handful of purpose-built towers — GALE Miami, LOFTY Brickell, District 225, SMART Brickell, NoMad Residences Wynwood, The Crosby, The Elser and, in Edgewater, VIDA Edgewater — because the entitlement has to be engineered into a building before it is built, not argued for afterwards.

Published 21 August 2026

Buildings that publish an express permission

Every entry below is quoted from the building’s or developer’s own published material. I am reporting what each building states about itself, not certifying that any particular unit may be rented on any particular platform today — that is a question for the current certificate of use and the declaration.

Lock one: the state licence

Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation requires a vacation rental licence for renting an entire unit more than three times in a calendar year for periods of less than 30 days, or where the unit is advertised as regularly rented to guests. A condominium unit is licensed under the “Vacation Rental – Condominium” class. Renting individual rooms rather than the whole unit does not require the DBPR licence, though local rules still apply.

Lock two: the City of Miami entitlement, and why it is a building decision

The City treats short-term rental as a lodging use. Its own zoning guidance says so directly and points to Miami 21 Article 4, Table 3 for the transects where lodging is allowed, adding that where no building certificate has been issued for lodging use, it will not be allowed. Single-family homes and duplexes in the T3 and T4-R transects are ineligible, a position the City won in City of Miami v. Airbnb, Inc., 260 So. 3d 1152 (Fla. 3d DCA 2018), because Miami 21’s residential-use restriction predates the 1 June 2011 grandfather date in the state preemption statute.

Four authorisations are needed before operating: a certificate of occupancy reflecting the lodging use, the DBPR licence, a certificate of use from the Zoning Department, and a business tax receipt from Code Compliance. The certificate of use is renewed annually, and the City states plainly that failure to renew results in revocation.

Lock three: the declaration, which preemption does not reach

Florida Statute 509.032(7)(b) reads: “A local law, ordinance, or regulation may not prohibit vacation rentals or regulate the duration or frequency of rental of vacation rentals. This paragraph does not apply to any local law, ordinance, or regulation adopted on or before June 1, 2011.” That language has not changed. SB 280, the 2024 attempt to rewrite the preemption, passed both chambers and was vetoed on 27 June 2024. The 2026 vacation-rental bills, SB 608 and CS/CS/SB 658, did not become law either.

Notice what the statute restrains: local government. A condominium declaration is a private contract among owners, and preemption does nothing to it. An association may prohibit short-term rental outright in a building sitting in a lodging-permitted transect, and that prohibition governs.

There is a wrinkle that cuts the buyer’s way and is routinely missed. Florida Statute 718.110(13) provides that an amendment prohibiting rentals, altering the rental term, or limiting how often a unit may be rented “applies only to unit owners who consent to the amendment and unit owners who acquire title to their units after the effective date of that amendment.” A seller can lawfully be doing something you will not be permitted to do after closing. Ask whether any rental amendment postdates the seller’s acquisition of title, and get the answer in writing.

The downside case, in one building

YOTELPAD Miami at 227 NE 2nd Street is the reason I will not let a buyer treat a sales-gallery promise as an entitlement. Buyers there purchased on the understanding that daily rental was unrestricted; the developer was quoted in 2022 saying “I can rent it out 365 times a year if I so choose, and everything in between.” On delivery the building received residential certificates of occupancy rather than apartment-hotel certificates. The City had adopted new lodging-conversion requirements while the tower was under construction and the building was not grandfathered in, leaving owners able to rent only for periods exceeding 30 days. Whether that was ever cured is not something I can verify from a public source, so I do not state that YOTELPAD permits daily rental today.

The lesson generalises. Marketing copy is not a certificate of use. Before you buy anything on the strength of a rental strategy, get the building’s current certificate of occupancy and its occupancy classification, the unit’s current certificate of use and its renewal date, the recorded declaration and every amendment, and the association’s current rules. If a seller or a sales gallery cannot produce those, that is the answer.

Edgewater specifically

There is one Edgewater tower that publishes an express permission: VIDA Edgewater Hotel & Residences at 410 NE 35th Terrace, in ZIP 33137, whose own site states that short term rentals are permitted. Just south of the neighbourhood line, Edge House Miami at 1837 NE 4th Avenue took the other documented route — entitlement as lodging rather than permission inside a residential condominium. The zoning analysis filed with the City described hotel units for stays of 30 days or less, and a City spokesperson described the approval as a hotel with 608 lodging units; the project drew a neighbourhood petition of more than 1,500 signatures. Those details come from press reporting rather than from a document I pulled myself, so treat them as reported rather than verified.

For the established bayfront towers — Paraiso Bay, Gran Paraiso, One Paraiso, Paraiso Bayviews, Icon Bay, Biscayne Beach, Elysee Miami, Missoni Baia, Bay House and Aria Reserve — none publishes a minimum lease term on a first-party site. Every “six-month minimum” or “twelve-month minimum” figure circulating for these buildings traces back to a broker page restating a document nobody linked. The term exists in the recorded declaration in the Miami-Dade County Official Records and in the association’s current rules, and that is where it has to be read.

One nearby association does publish, and it is instructive. Two Midtown Miami’s community FAQ quotes its declaration — “No lease of a Residential Unit shall be for a period of less than thirty (30) days” — and then records a board rule tightening that to three months and no more than two leases per year. A 30-day floor in the recorded document, narrowed further by later board action. That is the shape of the thing you are actually buying into, and it is invisible from a listing page.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading: the 2026 Florida condo law guide, how to read an association budget before you buy, buying Miami property as a foreign buyer, and Edgewater condos for rent.

Verified 21 August 2026 against Florida Statutes 509.032, 509.242 and 718.110, City of Miami short-term rental and zoning guidance, Miami-Dade County Code Chapter 33, and each building’s own published material. Rules and certificates change. Nothing here is legal advice or a representation about any particular building or unit; confirm current entitlements with the City of Miami and read the recorded declaration before relying on a rental strategy.