Ninety nights in a calendar year. That is what the 90 day rule for Airbnb in London actually sets, and the statute behind it counts nights of use rather than days, which is where some of the confusion starts. It is the limit on letting a home in Greater London as short-term accommodation before you need planning permission, and it applies across the 32 London boroughs and the City of London.
Two things about it are commonly misread. The ninety nights belong to the property, so every night counts whoever booked it and however it was booked. And the allowance only exists where you are liable for council tax on the premises, which means some properties do not get ninety nights at all.
Where the 90 day rule comes from
Section 25 of the Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1973 makes it a material change of use to use residential premises in London as temporary sleeping accommodation. A material change of use is development, and development needs planning permission. That applies even where only part of the premises is used that way.
So in London the starting position is that short letting a home needs permission. The ninety nights are a carve-out from that starting position, which is a different thing from an allowance the law hands you and then caps.
The exception is section 25A, inserted by section 44 of the Deregulation Act 2015. It says the use is not a material change of use where two conditions are both met.
Section 25A, Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1973
Both conditions, or no exception at all
The ninety nights are not a standalone allowance. They are the first limb of a two-limb exception, and the second limb is about who pays the council tax.
Condition one
The nights of use, added to the nights of each previous use of the same premises in the same calendar year, do not exceed ninety.
Condition two
For every night counted, the person providing the accommodation, or at least one of them where there are several, was liable for council tax on the premises. Receiving a council tax discount still counts as being liable.
Both met: the letting is not a material change of use, and no planning permission is needed for it.
Either one unmet and the exception falls away entirely. The position then reverts to section 25, where the use is a material change of use and planning permission becomes the question from the very first night.
The nights belong to the property
The statute counts nights of use of the premises. It adds the nights of each previous use in the same calendar year, and it says in terms that it does not matter whether a previous use was by the same person.
That wording is what makes a platform’s own counter an incomplete picture. A booking site can only count what it sold. A fortnight let directly to a family, a month through a second site and a run of weekends through a third are three sets of nights on one property, and section 25A adds them together.
One London flat, one calendar year, illustrative pattern
The counter that matters is the property's
Nights let through any route, to any guest, add to the same ninety. The running total is what section 25A tests.
- A listing site, spring3434
- Direct, repeat guests, summer2155
- A second listing site, autumn2883
- A corporate booking, taken directly1295
No single channel shows 95. The largest of them shows 34, which is why an owner can pass the limit while every dashboard they look at still reads comfortably inside it.
The council tax condition is the one that catches investment flats
Condition two asks whether the person providing the accommodation was liable for council tax on the premises for each night counted. The explanatory notes add that someone receiving a council tax discount still counts as liable.
Where that condition is not met, section 25A gives you nothing. The property is back under section 25, where the use is a material change of use, and the number of nights stops being the issue.
This is worth checking before the ninety nights are planned around, because the answer depends on how the property is held and who the billing authority treats as liable. A property that has moved off the council tax list entirely is in a different position again from a home you live in and let while away.
A borough can switch the exception off
Section 25B lets the local planning authority or the Secretary of State direct that the section 25A exception does not apply, either to specified premises or to residential premises in a specified area. The test is that the direction is necessary to protect the amenity of the locality, and a local planning authority needs the consent of the Secretary of State to give one.
So the ninety nights are the general position in Greater London and not a guarantee attached to every address in it. Where a direction is in force, the exception is gone for those premises.
Outside Greater London
None of this applies. Section 25 is a London statute, and the rest of England has no equivalent night cap. What applies elsewhere is the ordinary planning test of whether the use has materially changed, plus the rules that attach to short letting generally, which the rules guide sets out nation by nation. For how the planning question is framed outside London, airbnb planning permission covers it.
What this article does not settle
It does not tell you whether your own letting pattern has already passed ninety nights in this calendar year. That is a counting exercise across every channel and every direct booking you have taken.
It does not state enforcement outcomes or figures. Those sit outside the two sections read for this article, and numbers in circulation are often attached to the wrong provision.
It does not tell you whether a section 25B direction covers your address. A borough’s planning department is the place to ask, and the answer is address-specific.
If you are weighing up whether a London property is worth letting short term at all, our free valuation comes back with the obvious questions flagged for your property, this one among them.
Frequently asked questions
Does the 90 day rule apply to the whole of London?
It applies to residential premises in Greater London, which the explanatory notes to the Deregulation Act 2015 describe as the 32 London boroughs and the City of London. Section 25B then allows the exception to be switched off for specified premises or areas, so an address inside that boundary can still sit outside the allowance.
Do nights booked on different websites count separately?
No. Section 25A counts nights of use of the premises and adds each previous use in the same calendar year, and it says it does not matter whether a previous use was by the same person. One property has one annual count, whatever mixture of channels and guests produced it.
What happens after 90 nights in London?
The section 25A exception stops applying to that use, so the position returns to section 25, where using the premises as temporary sleeping accommodation is a material change of use. Development of that kind requires planning permission, which is a matter for the local planning authority.
Sources
- legislation.gov.uk: Deregulation Act 2015, section 44 (inserts sections 25A and 25B into the 1973 Act; the ninety nights, the calendar year basis and the council tax condition; read 2026-10-19)
- legislation.gov.uk: Deregulation Act 2015, explanatory notes, paragraphs 206 to 213 (section 25’s scope across the 32 boroughs and the City, material change of use, and the section 25B direction power; read 2026-10-19)
- legislation.gov.uk: Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1973 (the parent Act; published as a PDF, so this article quotes its effect from the explanatory notes instead of quoting section 25 directly; checked 2026-10-19)
