Birmingham, AL Short-Term Rentals: Occupancy Limits (2026)

' The detailed occupancy and guest-gathering rules live in Title 12, Chapter 23, which the City Council had not yet finalized as of the first half of 2026. According to the City's Planning, Engineering and Permits short-term rental framework reported through the Zoning Advisory Committee and City Council deliberations, the proposed (not-yet-adopted) ordinance would limit short-term rentals to roughly 1 percent of residential units in applicable zones (about 1,067 units citywide), impose a 1,000-foot minimum spacing between STR units, require a responsible party located within 10 miles of each unit, set a minimum primary-guest age of 25 years, and ban short-term rentals outright in single-family residential zones, while applying noise restrictions stricter than the city's general noise ordinance.

Until Chapter 23 is adopted with a specific per-unit occupant cap, the binding occupancy limits for a given STR are the occupant-load limits of the International Building/Residential Code as enforced by Birmingham's Permitting & Inspection Division, plus any conditions placed on an individual STR permit or special exception. Because no city-specific overnight headcount cap is in force, severity is permissive, but operators should expect numeric caps once Chapter 23 is finalized.