Update on Denver-area Airbnb-friendly cities

[James Carlson]

It's been about a year since three Denver-area cities passed laws allowing for Airbnb investments. One of those cities -- Littleton -- recently reversed their law, and now they don't allow any non-owner occupied short-term rentals. That made me want to get updates on Wheat Ridge and Arvada. Are there any plans to pull back on their laws that allow STR investments?

Short answer: No, no plans. Longer answer: See below.

Wheat Ridge

In early 2021, Wheat Ridge passed a law to allow non-owner occupied STRs (or vacation rentals). You can read about the law here, but the biggest difference in this law is that it caps the number of STR licenses per council district to 1% of that district's housing stock.

The planner I talked to said that in all districts but one they are only halfway to the cap. The one district nearing the cap on STRs is District 1, but even that still has somewhere "between 5 and 10" to go before hitting the cap. It's not surprising that that is the closest to the cap. It's the southeastern most district that is closest to the hot Highlands area in Denver. Buy there and you basically have an Airbnb near the "action" in Denver.

Arvada

In late 2020, Arvada passed a law to allow for short-term rentals in non-owner occupied properties. You can read details about the law here. I talked to the planning department, and they have hear no whisperings or rumblings from city council about changing that.

The takeaway is that for now, Arvada and Wheat Ridge continue to be great Denver-area cities that are friendly to Airbnb and vacation rentals. 

Alright, carry on