Denver's Short-Term Rental Rules: Primary Residence Only

Unlike many rural Colorado counties where a second home or a dedicated investment property can operate as a short-term rental, Denver only licenses STRs in an owner's actual primary residence. If your plan for a Denver County property is a pure rental play, this rule rules it out before you buy.

This page covers what's specific to Denver County. For the general explanation, see the national guide.

The primary-residence rule: Denver's real limiting factor

Denver City Council adopted its short-term rental ordinance (Council Bill CB16-0262) on June 13, 2016, codified in Denver Revised Municipal Code Chapter 33, Article III, and it took effect January 1, 2017. The central restriction is that a short-term rental license can only be issued for the property where the licensee actually lives as their full-time primary residence -- defined as the place where a person's habitation is fixed for the license term and is their usual place of return, typically evidenced by things like voter registration or a driver's license address. In practice, the property needs to be occupied by the owner as their home for more than half the year.

That single rule rules out the most common short-term-rental investment strategy used in many other Colorado counties: buying a second home or a dedicated property purely to operate as a licensed vacation rental. Investment properties, second homes, and any non-owner-occupied rental are not eligible for a Denver STR license at all -- there's no tier or exception for a non-resident owner the way some other jurisdictions allow. You're also limited to one active license at a time, tied to one primary residence, so a strategy built around licensing multiple Denver properties as STRs under one owner doesn't work under this ordinance either.

The two-license process, and what this means before you buy

Operating legally requires two separate approvals: a general business license, which establishes the short-term rental as a taxable business within the city, and a separate short-term rental license specifically authorizing the primary-residence property to be rented for stays under 30 days. Both need to be current and tied to the same property for the arrangement to be legal -- a business license alone doesn't authorize short-term rental use, and vice versa.

If your plan for a Denver County property depends on short-term rental income and you don't intend to live there as your actual primary residence, budget on the assumption that it cannot be legally licensed under the current ordinance -- an unlicensed short-term rental in Denver is a real enforcement risk, not a gray area. If instead you're planning to buy a home you'll genuinely live in and rent out occasionally (a spare room, or the whole home while you travel), confirm the current business-license and STR-license application process and any recent fee changes directly with the city before counting on that income in your purchase math.

Short-Term Rentals in Denver County, Colorado

The primary-residence rule: Denver's real limiting factor

The two-license process, and what this means before you buy

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