Miami Will Track Condo Buildings With Short-Term Rental Violations

The Miami City Commission voted unanimously on September 10, 2026 to have the city manager report on short-term rental violations and their effect on condo buildings, then follow up with quarterly lists of condo buildings with repeat violations. The directive, sponsored by District 2 Commissioner Damian Pardo, came a month after the city told one Brickell tower to stop operating like a hotel. For condo owners, it means the city will start naming buildings where nightly rentals break the rules.

What the commission asked for

As described by Miami Today ahead of the vote and by Hoodline after it, the directive has three parts:

• A violations report within 90 days, covering pending cases and violations brought to a hearing in the previous two years in the city's transect zones other than T3, the single-family zone.
• Data sources for that report: state lodging licenses, building permits, city Certificates of Use, Business Tax Receipts and complaint calls.
• Quarterly updates listing condo buildings with multiple violations.

The city attorney was also asked to report on short-term rental registration programs in other jurisdictions.

The building that triggered it

On August 11, 2026 the city sent a letter to the board of The Club at Brickell Bay, the 43-story, 643-unit tower at 1200 Brickell Bay Drive, demanding that vacation rentals stop, as reported by WLRN and Hoodline. According to Hoodline, citing CBS News Miami, more than 300 units were being rented short term in a building authorized for 30, and listings were still up weeks later.

Own.Miami's records show the building is still trading normally. From recorded deeds, 40 units sold from October 2025 through September 2026 at a median of $457,500. MLS closings in the last 12 months had a median of $545 per square foot, and 39 units were listed for sale as of October 13, 2026. Its Financeability Index is 81 out of 100: regulated lenders made 28 purchase loans there in the last 12 months.

Why the state limits what Miami can do

Florida law (section 509.032(7)(b), Florida Statutes) bars cities from prohibiting vacation rentals or regulating how long or how often they are rented, unless the local rule was adopted on or before June 1, 2011. Miami relies on its older zoning code, Miami 21, which limits the T3 zone to permanent residential use. When Airbnb and five hosts sued the city in 2017, a trial judge blocked enforcement, but in 2018 Florida's Third District Court of Appeal reversed that temporary injunction. The appeal settled the injunction, not every question in the case.

That is why the new report looks outside T3: in the towers of Brickell, Downtown and Edgewater, whether nightly rentals are allowed mostly depends on the building's own zoning approvals, licenses and condo documents.

What buyers should check

Rental rules are set building by building. Among the 233 published buildings Own.Miami tracks in Brickell, Downtown, Edgewater, Midtown and Coconut Grove, only 8 have a recorded policy that permits Airbnb-style stays, as of October 13, 2026: one in Brickell, five in Downtown and two in Midtown, including Natiivo Miami and E11EVEN Hotel & Residences. Everywhere else, a buyer counting on nightly rental income is taking a legal risk, and a building with heavy illegal renting may be named publicly once the quarterly lists start.