STRWATCH.AI 50/50 MARKETS · UPDATED 2026-07-18 · ALL CITIES
STRWATCH.AI / VA / Virginia Beach

Is a short-term rental legal in Virginia Beach, VA?

HEAVILY REGULATED

Virginia Beach defines a short-term rental (STR) as a rental of 30 days or less of an entire home (or one or more rooms in a primary home), and where you may legally operate one depends on zoning.

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Verified2026-07-18against official sources

Allowed by right (no CUP) in the Sandbridge Special Service District with an annual STR zoning permit. Requires a Conditional Use Permit plus the annual permit in the Oceanfront Resort STR Overlay District. Outside those two areas, new CUPs have generally not been granted since September 7, 2021; only STRs registered with the Commissioner of the Revenue before July 1, 2018 (with TOT paid) or granted a CUP before September 7, 2021 outside an Overlay District remain grandfathered, and grandfathered status is lost if the dwelling expands by more than 25% or 1,000 sq ft (whichever is less). No flat citywide guest cap; occupancy is limited to 2 persons per bedroom, and events cannot exceed the maximum overnight capacity (bedrooms x 2) without a special-events permit. The city's own STR definition covers rentals of 30 days or less, but the transient occupancy tax is charged and remitted on all rentals of 90 days or less -- these are two different thresholds, both confirmed on official city pages.

What you need to operate

Short-Term Rental Zoning Permit $500/year
City of Virginia Beach Planning Department -- Zoning Administration
Renewal: Annual; permit expires one year after issuance
Required for every address used as an STR citywide, including Sandbridge and the Oceanfront Resort STR Overlay District. The $500 fee is due only after the property is found zoning-compliant. Requires proof of current Commissioner of the Revenue registration, life-safety and structural-safety inspection reports/attestations, liability insurance, and (where applicable) an active CUP.
official source
Conditional Use Permit (STR Overlay District) $1,090 (standard Conditional Use Permit application fee)
Virginia Beach City Council / Planning Commission
Renewal: Every 5 years (CUP expires 5 years from date of adoption)
Required before completing the annual STR zoning permit process for a new STR within the Oceanfront Resort STR Overlay District. Not required in the Sandbridge Special Service District (by right). Since a September 7, 2021 ordinance change, new CUP approvals for STRs outside the Overlay District have generally not been granted; CUPs issued before that date outside an Overlay District are grandfathered but must still meet their original conditions.
official source
Commissioner of the Revenue STR Registration Cost not verified
Virginia Beach Commissioner of the Revenue
Renewal: Annual registration, plus monthly TOT reporting/remittance
Required for every STR regardless of zoning status. Applicants complete the Virginia Beach 311 Form naming a responsible party reachable within 30 minutes; applications are forwarded to the Planning Department's Zoning office for approval.
official source
Life Safety Inspection Cost not verified
City of Virginia Beach
Renewal: Every 5 years (annual attestation form accepted in interim years)
Report required with the initial STR zoning permit application; valid for 5 years.
official source
Structural Safety Inspection Cost not verified
City of Virginia Beach
Renewal: Every 3 years
Required with the initial zoning permit request and every 3 years thereafter; stairways, decks, porches, and balconies under 30 inches high require only photo verification instead of a full inspection.
official source
Liability Insurance Cost not verified
City of Virginia Beach
Renewal: Proof required at registration and at each renewal
Minimum $1,000,000 liability insurance covering the rental activity, listing the STR property address, underwritten by an insurer acceptable to the city.
official source

The full picture

Virginia Beach defines a short-term rental (STR) as a rental of 30 days or less of an entire home (or one or more rooms in a primary home), and where you may legally operate one depends on zoning. In the Sandbridge Special Service District, STRs are allowed by right with only an annual $500 zoning permit. Everywhere else, a new STR generally needs a Conditional Use Permit (CUP, standard fee $1,090, renewed every 5 years) in addition to the annual permit, and since a September 7, 2021 ordinance the city has largely confined new CUP approvals to the Oceanfront Resort STR Overlay District; STRs registered with the Commissioner of the Revenue before July 1, 2018 (taxes paid) or CUP'd before September 7, 2021 outside the Overlay are grandfathered and may continue operating. Every STR, regardless of district, must register annually with the Commissioner of the Revenue, carry at least $1,000,000 in liability insurance, pass a life-safety inspection (valid 5 years) and a structural-safety inspection (every 3 years), and provide one off-street parking space per bedroom. Occupancy is limited to 2 persons per bedroom, no more than 2 rental contracts in any consecutive 7-day period, and no outdoor amplified sound after 10 p.m. Guests pay a city lodging tax of 9% of gross rental plus $2/night (10.5% + $2/night inside Sandbridge), on top of Virginia's 6% state/local/regional retail sales tax on accommodations (rentals of 90 days or less); accommodations intermediaries like Airbnb and Vrbo are required by state law to collect and remit these taxes. As of the city's last-updated official enforcement guidance, zoning violations are civil offenses ($200 first offense, $500 each subsequent, escalating to a criminal misdemeanor only if unpaid fines exceed $5,000) -- though 2025 news reports say City Council voted in August 2025 to make STR violations straight misdemeanors and to loosen the parking rule to 1 space per 2 bedrooms; those specific changes could not be confirmed against the current codified ordinance text this session (see needs_review).

Taxes on guests & hosts

TaxRateApplies toPlatform collectsOfficial source
Virginia Beach Transient Occupancy Tax (city lodging tax) 9% of total gross rental + $2/night flat tax (10.5% + $2/night within the Sandbridge Special Service District) Short-term rentals of 90 days or less; remitted monthly by the 20th of the following month Yes source
Virginia Retail Sales Tax on Accommodations 6% (4.3% state + 1% local + 0.7% Hampton Roads regional transportation tax) Accommodations/lodging charges statewide in the Hampton Roads region, including Virginia Beach; remitted to the Virginia Department of Taxation Yes source

Enforcement

PenaltiesPer the city's official enforcement guidance (virginiabeach.gov blog, 'What to Expect When... Filing a Complaint'): civil fines starting at $200 for a first zoning violation and $500 for each subsequent violation; if unpaid fines on a property exceed $5,000, the case may be pursued as a criminal misdemeanor. Since February 2022 the city has issued 269 STR-related summonses per that page. News reports (WAVY, 13News Now, August 2025) state City Council voted to reclassify STR zoning violations as criminal misdemeanors from the first offense, with fines escalating to $1,000 (first offense), $1,500 (uncorrected), and up to $2,000 (ongoing) -- this could not be independently verified against the current codified ordinance text this session; see needs_review.
Platform liabilityUnder Virginia Code Section 58.1-3826, an accommodations intermediary (e.g., Airbnb, Vrbo) that facilitates a retail sale of an accommodation is deemed 'a facility making a retail sale of an accommodation' and must collect the transient occupancy tax on the room charge and remit it to the locality, and is liable for that amount; the accommodations provider (host) remains responsible for remitting any portion the intermediary does not collect.
NotesComplaints are filed via the city's 3-1-1 system or the STR team's 24/7 hotline (757-210-5385); STR properties must post signage directing neighbors to the complaint line. The Zoning Office's STR team investigates within 1-2 days via interviews, site visits, and online research. See needs_review for the unresolved status of the reported August 2025 penalty and parking-requirement changes.

What we could not verify (5)

  • Could not confirm whether Virginia Beach's reported August 2025 City Council ordinance amendments -- reclassifying STR zoning violations as criminal misdemeanors from the first offense (fines escalating $1,000/$1,500/$2,000 per WAVY and 13News Now) and reducing the STR parking requirement from 1 space per bedroom to 1 space per 2 bedrooms -- have actually been codified. The live official pages fetched on 2026-07-18 (planning.virginiabeach.gov/permits/short-term-rental and the city's enforcement blog) still state 1 parking space per bedroom and describe the older civil-fine structure ($200/$500, misdemeanor only above $5,000 unpaid). library.municode.com returned only a JavaScript application shell (bot-wall, no rendered text) and virginiabeach.elaws.us returned HTTP 503/403 on every attempt this session, so the current codified parking requirement and penalty structure could not be independently verified against the zoning ordinance text itself. The `enforcement.penalties` field and the 1-space-per-bedroom parking figure in this profile reflect the officially-published-but-possibly-stale city pages; verify directly with Zoning Administration (757-385-8074) before relying on either figure.
  • Whether Virginia Beach imposes any primary-residence/owner-occupancy requirement on STR operators could not be confirmed or ruled out from an official source. None of the fetched official pages (planning.virginiabeach.gov/permits/short-term-rental, its /rules page, or the Code of Virginia sections reviewed) explicitly address owner-occupancy, so `primary_residence_required: false` reflects the absence of any such requirement in the material reviewed, not an explicit official statement that none exists.
  • Virginia Code Section 58.1-3826 legally requires accommodations intermediaries to collect and remit Virginia Beach's transient occupancy tax, and `collectedByPlatform: true` reflects that legal requirement. Non-official vendor sources (not used as a cited source) suggest actual per-platform practice may vary -- e.g., a platform might collect the state sales-tax portion but not the local TOT in every case. Hosts should confirm their specific platform's current collection status with the Commissioner of the Revenue (757-385-4515) rather than assume full automatic remittance.
  • The specific statutory or charter provision authorizing Virginia Beach (a city) to levy its 9%/10.5% transient occupancy tax plus the $2/night flat component was not independently located this session. Code of Virginia Section 58.1-3819 as reviewed authorizes counties generally and preserves 'any authority heretofore granted to any county, city or town' (subsection C) without spelling out Virginia Beach's specific grant, and the only $2/night flat-tax authorization found in Article 6 (Section 58.1-3823(C)) is explicitly limited to James City and York Counties, not Virginia Beach. The 9%/10.5% + $2/night rates themselves are directly corroborated by Virginia Beach's own Commissioner of the Revenue page with worked calculation examples, so the rates are verified even though the precise enabling statute/charter citation is not.
  • The official grandfathering rule (CUPs granted before September 7, 2021 outside STR Overlay Districts are grandfathered) implies new CUP applications outside Sandbridge and the Oceanfront Resort Overlay are generally no longer approved, but no official source fetched this session explicitly states this as a standing citywide policy covering every non-overlay zoning district; the official FAQ page (planning.virginiabeach.gov/permits/short-term-rental/faqs) did not return readable content this session to confirm directly.

Sources

A markdown mirror of this page lives at /virginia-beach-va.md for AI tools and researchers.

STRWatch publishes educational information about short-term rental regulation, verified against the official sources linked above as of the date shown. It is not legal advice, and rules change — a city can move between our verification passes. For decisions with money at stake, confirm with the authority linked above or a local attorney.