Santa Fe, NM short-term rental limits

What Santa Fe asks of you

• An owner needs a city business license plus either a short-term rental permit or a short-term rental registration, depending on zoning.^[4]

• A unit on residentially zoned property needs a permit. A unit on other land needs a registration, which the 1,000-permit limit does not cover.^[4]

• The land use director issues 1,000 short-term rental permits at most. Past that number, applicants wait on a list until a permit becomes available.^[4]

• Permits go to natural persons only, one per person. The property itself may still be titled in a revocable trust, an LLC or a corporation.^[4]

• Permits cannot pass to another person or another property. The one exception is a surviving spouse or domestic partner who asks within 90 days of the holder's death.^[4]

• Apart from that exception, a change of ownership ends the permit, and the new owner applies again.^[4]

• No new permit is issued within a 50-foot radius of a residentially zoned property that has one. Accessory dwelling units meeting the city's ADU rules are exempt.^[4]

• In a development of four or more units, permits stop at 25% of the units. No single building gets more than 12.^[4]

• A permitted unit may not be rented more than once within a seven-day period. Rentals that begin between November 15 and January 15 are exempt.^[4]

• A written interpretation dated July 1, 2026 reads that rule as 44 unique rentals or fewer per calendar year. Non-residentially zoned units are outside it.^[6]

• A local operator takes complaints around the clock. That operator must be able to get to the unit within one hour of contact.^[4]

• Total guests may not exceed twice the number of bedrooms. Noise after 10:00 p.m. is prohibited, from decks and patios as well.^[4]

• The city inspects before the first permit. It checks for a fire evacuation plan, carbon monoxide detection and smoke alarms in all bedrooms.^[4]

• The application fee is a one-time $100. The business license costs $35 a year, while the permit or registration fee runs $290 a year.^[4]

• Within 10 days of issuance or renewal, the owner mails notices to residential property owners within 200 feet. An affidavit of mailing follows within 10 more days.^[4]

• Owners keep records for the three most recent years, including the start date of each reservation and the rent guests paid by month.^[4]

• Once the city flags a permit number as invalid, the host platform deactivates that listing within five business days.^[4]

• Permits held when Ordinance No. 2020-35 was adopted escape the proximity rule and the one-permit limit.^[4]

• The city's page puts the annual renewal deadline at 5:00 p.m. on April 15. New applications open at that same moment, first come, first served.^[5]

What New Mexico asks wherever you host

These rules apply at this address whatever the city decides.

• A platform such as Airbnb doing business in New Mexico pays gross receipts tax on the full amount of the stay, its own fees included. The host reports the same receipts, then claims the Section 7-9-117 deduction.^[2]

• The gross receipts rate follows the property's location. It combines the state's 4.875% for July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027 with the local options in force there.^[3]

• A county occupancy tax stops at city limits under the Lodgers' Tax Act, and no occupancy tax may exceed 5% of rent. The vendor collects it as a separate charge.^[1]