San Antonio STR Permit Fee: $1,000 and the 3-Year Math

San Antonio City Council takes its final vote on the FY 2027 budget on Thursday, September 17, 2026, according to the city's own budget calendar. Buried inside a $4.4 billion package that carries more than 140 new or increased fees is a line most hosts have not seen: the Type 2 short term rental permit, the one required when neither owner nor operator lives on site, rises from $450 to $1,000. The owner-occupied Type 1 permit goes from $300 to $450.

Those numbers have been reprinted almost everywhere without the detail that changes their meaning. San Antonio permits are valid for three years. The $1,000 figure is not an annual bill, and comparing it against cities that charge yearly produces a conclusion that is exactly backwards.

The increase is still a proposal and will not be adopted until the council votes. What follows is the arithmetic hosts should have before that happens, the legal argument they are likely to reach for and should not rely on, and the part of the permit that actually carries value.

Key facts

• Type 2 (not owner or operator occupied) permits rise from $450 to $1,000, a 122% increase, under the FY 2027 proposed budget presented August 13, 2026 (KSAT).
• Type 1 (owner or operator occupied) permits rise from $300 to $450, a 50% increase (same source).
• San Antonio STR permits are valid for three years and are not transferable, per the city's STR permits page. Annualized, Type 2 moves from $150 a year to $333.33 a year.
• City Council votes on the budget Thursday, September 17, 2026, and the fiscal year begins October 1 (City of San Antonio budget calendar).
• This is the second increase in roughly two years. In June 2024 the council raised Type 1 from $100 to $300 and Type 2 from $100 to $450 (San Antonio Report, June 13, 2024).

What the FY 2027 budget would change

City Manager Erik Walsh presented the proposed budget on August 13, 2026. The short term rental line sits alongside more than 140 other fee adjustments the city is using to close its gap, which KSAT catalogued in an August 19 roundup.

The city has stated what the money is for. According to a summary published by the Short Term Rental Association of San Antonio, the higher fees are intended to recover costs in three areas: Development Services staff who administer the STR program, the short term rental share of the city's contract with Avenu Analytics, which handles hotel occupancy tax reporting and helps identify unpermitted listings, and police responses to problem properties.

A fee justified as cost recovery invites a specific question, which is whether the revenue tracks the cost. That is a question a host can ask at a public hearing.

Divide by three before you compare anything

A Type 2 permit at $450 for a three-year term costs $150 a year. At $1,000, it costs $333.33 a year, an annual increase of $183.33. A Type 1 permit moves from $100 a year to $150, an increase of $50.

Now consider the number hosts are being invited to compare it against. Ventura, California raised its short term rental permit fee from $204 to $1,526 effective July 1, 2026, with existing holders required to renew by August 31 (edhat). Ventura's is an annual fee, a distinction we drew when we covered the four-part test for when a permit fee becomes an illegal tax. Set side by side as raw numbers, $1,000 and $1,526 look comparable. Normalized to a year, San Antonio's $333.33 sits well below Ventura's $1,526.

Any comparison table that lists permit prices without listing permit terms is not telling you anything. Check the term first.

What $183 a year does to a real profit and loss statement

Very little on its own.

A Type 2 property grossing $40,000 a year remits 9% city hotel occupancy tax plus 1.75% Bexar County HOT, per the city's short term rental page. That is 10.75%, or $4,300 a year in local lodging tax. An annualized permit cost of $333.33 is about 7.7% of what the same host already sends the city and county. The permit is not the line item that decides whether a property works. That is the same finding in our compliance-cost audit: the cash price of a permit is usually hundreds of dollars, and structural rules bind more than the fee.

Scale it citywide and the picture holds. San Antonio had 3,164 permitted short term rentals as of June 2024, roughly 77% of them Type 2. Apply the proposed increases to that mix and the city collects about $1.34 million more from Type 2 permits and $109,000 more from Type 1 across a full three-year renewal cycle, or roughly $483,000 a year. Real money for a code compliance program, and not a number that reshapes anyone's underwriting.

The reason to pay attention is not the size of the fee. It is what the fee is attached to.

Does the Folly Beach ruling help San Antonio hosts?

Probably not, and hosts should understand why before they spend money finding out.

In August 2026 a South Carolina judge struck down Folly Beach's short term rental permit fee, and a proposed class action followed seeking refunds. We covered that ruling and the test behind it in full. The charge there was 1.75% of gross rental income, deposited into the general fund rather than tied to a specific service, and South Carolina courts applied a four-part test asking whether the revenue benefits the payers, funds only the contemplated improvement, stays within the cost of that improvement, and falls uniformly on everyone paying it.

San Antonio's fee has a different shape. It is a flat amount per permit that does not vary with what the property earns, and the city has published a cost-recovery rationale naming the functions it funds. The Folly Beach decision also applied South Carolina law to a South Carolina charge, and Texas has its own framework.

None of that makes a fee unchallengeable. It does mean the argument that won in Folly Beach does not travel simply because a number went up. Size is not the test in that line of cases. Revenue keying and general fund deposit are.

The blockface cap is what makes a Type 2 permit valuable

San Antonio does not issue Type 2 permits on request. The current STR ordinance caps them at 12.5% of a blockface in single-family residential areas. Multifamily buildings follow their own schedule: buildings with five to seven units allow one Type 2 rental, and buildings with eight or more apply the 12.5% calculation to unit count, rounded down.

A blockface is the set of properties fronting one side of a street between two intersections. Once 12.5% of it is permitted, the next applicant on that street is out, whatever they are willing to pay.

Permits are also not transferable. Sell the house and the buyer applies on their own, into whatever density remains and under whatever rules exist that day. We worked through what non-transferable permission does to exit value when Oregon upheld Lincoln County's shrinking license pool, and the mechanic is the same here: when supply is capped and permission cannot travel with the deed, the permit stops behaving like a registration and starts behaving closer to a medallion.

Which is why the increase deserves attention even though $183 a year is not a meaningful expense. Raising the cost of an unlimited license discourages entry. Raising the cost of a rationed, non-transferable one does something narrower. It raises the carrying cost of an asset whose supply is already fixed, and it funds the enforcement apparatus that decides whether the asset stays valid.

What San Antonio hosts should do before September 17

Confirm your permit type and expiration date first. If your renewal falls near the turn of the fiscal year, call Development Services and ask which fee schedule your renewal will be billed under. Do not assume the answer either way.

Read the effective date in the adopted fee schedule rather than assuming the increase begins on the day of the vote. The fiscal year starts October 1, and fee ordinances adopted with a budget commonly take effect with it, but the adopted text governs.

Budget the annualized figure. Comparing San Antonio to another market means comparing $333.33 against that market's annual number, not $1,000 against it.

Keep the permit current for reasons unrelated to the fee. The 2024 ordinance added civil enforcement through administrative hearing officers, permit revocation of up to three years for violations, and a requirement that listing platforms remove San Antonio listings without valid permit numbers, as Avalara documented at the time. In a city where the platform is the enforcement point, a lapsed permit does not produce a letter. It produces a delisting.

That last point is worth sitting with. A host whose entire demand arrives through one marketplace has no fallback on the day that marketplace removes the listing. A direct booking site on your own domain, with your own guest list, does not make a permit problem disappear, but it does keep the city's enforcement lever and your only sales channel from being the same thing. Haven (bookwithhaven.com) builds branded direct booking sites for that reason, with no booking commission and the guest relationship staying with the host.

What to watch after the vote

Watch the adopted fee schedule for its effective date and for language phasing the increase in. Watch whether Development Services publishes the cost basis behind the new figures, since the city has framed them as cost recovery and that framing sets a standard it can be held to.

Beyond San Antonio, watch the pattern. Texas cities are converging on two levers, fee escalation and platform accountability. Austin's platform regulations took effect July 1, 2026, and the city says it began requesting removal of unlicensed properties from STR platforms that day. San Antonio has not adopted Austin's full framework, and nothing in the FY 2027 budget suggests it is about to. But a city that funds enforcement through permit fees and enforces through platforms has built a system where the permit is the whole game. Our state-by-state guide to 2026 short term rental laws tracks where else that model is taking hold.

Frequently asked questions

How much is a short term rental permit in San Antonio right now?

As of September 10, 2026, a Type 1 permit costs $300 and a Type 2 permit costs $450, according to the City of San Antonio. Both are valid for three years and are not transferable, which works out to $100 and $150 a year respectively.

When would the new San Antonio STR permit fees take effect?

City Council votes on the FY 2027 budget on September 17, 2026, and the city's fiscal year begins October 1. The proposed fees are $450 for Type 1 and $1,000 for Type 2. The increase has not been adopted, and hosts should read the effective date in the adopted fee schedule rather than assume it starts on the day of the vote.

What is the difference between a Type 1 and Type 2 short term rental permit in San Antonio?

Type 1 covers rentals where the owner or operator lives on the property. Type 2 covers rentals where neither does. Type 2 permits are also subject to a density cap of 12.5% of a blockface in single-family residential areas, so they are limited in supply in a way Type 1 permits are not.

Can short term rental hosts sue a city over a high permit fee?

Hosts have won such cases, but the successful arguments turn on the structure of the charge rather than its size. In Folly Beach, South Carolina, a court struck down a fee calculated as a percentage of gross rental income and deposited in the general fund. A flat per-permit fee tied to documented program costs is a different structure, and the law varies by state. This is not legal advice, and anyone considering a challenge should talk to a lawyer licensed in their state.