"Any new owner shall apply for the license as with all other properties." That sentence comes from the short-term rental ordinance Chatham County commissioners approved on September 25, 2026. It matters more than any other line in the ordinance to someone pricing a Wilmington Island or Talahi Island home on its rental history.
The ordinance text calls a license "non-transferrable" and says it "must be maintained by the person in whose name the license was issued." The same vote set a 5% cap on non-homesteaded short-term rentals in each new county rental district, according to WJCL's report on the vote. Put those two rules together and the closing date becomes the day a licensed rental's license history stops, unless the buyer can win a new license under the cap. A buyer can't count on the seller's booking calendar, five-star reviews or past rental income carrying over at closing.
Why the County Rule Governs the Islands
Wilmington Island and Talahi Island are in unincorporated Chatham County, so county rental rules apply there, not city rules. The Current listed Wilmington Island among the unincorporated areas covered by county rental regulation back in May 2026. Rules in the City of Savannah and on Tybee Island are separate, and none of their permit language crosses the bridge to these neighborhoods.
The county got here over the summer. Commissioners approved a 120-day moratorium on new short-term rentals on July 10, 2026, WTOC reported. The September 25 vote replaced that pause with a permanent framework. WTOC called the vote unanimous, and WJCL noted that District 8 Commissioner Marsha Buford was absent. Savannah Agenda reported that the new rules ended the moratorium on new applications.
The Cap Is What Makes a Sale Expensive
Because of the cap, a buyer who reapplies for a license may be turned down.
The county split the unincorporated area into rental districts that follow Chatham County Police Response Neighborhoods. Those are the boundaries county police and 911 already use. In a September 11 presentation, county staff told commissioners, as WSAV reported, that the biggest complaints about short-term rentals came down to police response and owners nobody could reach. Under the ordinance, renewals of existing licenses, along with applications filed before September 25, 2026, can't be denied because a district is over the cap. Apart from a family-transfer exception covered below, every non-renewal application filed after that date is subject to the cap.
A buyer's application is a non-renewal application. The protected licenses also count when the county figures each district's percentage. If a district's grandfathered licenses already fill or exceed its 5%, the ordinance says no new license will be issued there.
In practice, the seller's license keeps renewing while the seller owns the home. When the home sells, the license ends, the seller's slot drops out of the count, and the buyer joins whatever queue the district has. Whether the buyer can rent the home short-term then depends on how full that district is when the buyer applies.
The ordinance makes one exception for a change of ownership. If title to a home with a pre-existing license goes to an immediate family member, the new owner's application can't be denied on cap grounds, as long as they apply within six months of the transfer. The list of family members covers a spouse, child, parent, brother, sister or grandchild. A sale on the open market doesn't qualify.
What Falls Outside the Cap
The cap doesn't apply to every property, and the exemptions decide which homes keep their rental value through a sale.
| Property type | Subject to the 5% cap on new licenses? |
|---|---|
| Non-owner-occupied single-family home in a counted residential zoning district | Yes |
| Owner-occupied property | No |
| Condominium | No |
| Parcel over 2 acres | No |
| Existing license at annual renewal | Counted in the district total, but not denied on cap grounds |
The owner-occupied exemption has a narrow definition. The owner has to live in the principal dwelling as their primary and usual residence, and the rental unit has to share the same assessor parcel ID. Owner occupancy is shown with a homestead exemption, or with an affidavit plus two listed proofs of residency. A buyer who plans to live on the property and rent a qualifying unit stands in a different spot from a buyer planning a second home or a full-time rental.
The Renewal Year Applies to Grandfathered Homes Too
A protected license is still subject to the new operating rules. WJCL reported that existing licenses stay valid through June 30, 2027, and that owners will renew under the new rules starting July 1. Licenses run on a July 1 to June 30 cycle, and renewing owners have to keep every license requirement current.
Several of those requirements limit how many guests a house can take:
- Occupancy. Sewer-served rentals allow two people per code-compliant bedroom plus two per residence, with a ceiling of 15. Septic rentals allow two per bedroom, with a ceiling of 15 or a lower Health Department capacity.
- Parking. Each rented bedroom needs one off-street space on the same property, on designated gravel, concrete or asphalt. WJCL noted that street parking doesn't count.
- Contacts. Owners have to name two local contacts, each at least 18, available around the clock and able to arrive on site within three hours when county staff ask.
- Enforcement. Three or more investigated and substantiated complaints about violations that endanger the community's peace or welfare start a compliance investigation, and the County Manager may suspend the license while it runs. Three substantiated complaints within 12 months for parking, occupancy, noise or other listed violations are grounds for revocation. The amendments also raise specified penalties to $250 per violation.
The bedroom count is where this hits the islands. At the public hearing, a Talahi Island resident described a nearby rental advertised for up to 23 guests with 17 beds, WJCL reported, and said bedrooms had been added in a garage. Under the new rules, guest capacity depends on code-compliant bedrooms and parking spaces on the lot. The number in the listing doesn't count. A buyer looking at a home's rental history should work out what the house can legally hold at the 2027 renewal, because that figure may be lower than the one in the old reviews.
The parking rule was the one provision a commissioner questioned. District 7 Commissioner Dean Kicklighter said it could prompt owners to pave their entire front yards, according to WSAV.
What the County Map Shows for the Islands
The county put out an interactive map of short-term rentals in the unincorporated area, Its data layer separates licensed rentals from listings that may be unlicensed. In the layer's data, last edited September 24, 2026, there were 19 licensed rental records under the Talahi Island neighborhood label and 7 under Wilmington Island South. Those are raw license counts from a map the county keeps updating. They aren't district percentages. Whether a district has room depends on how many qualifying residential parcels it contains, and the map counts don't show that.
The cap level may still change. At the hearing, Grace Porterfield of Savannah Area REALTORS asked commissioners to raise it slightly "so that those three are also still within their current range of holding," WJCL reported. The station's story didn't name the three. Chairman Chester Ellis told WTOC that "this is a work in progress" and that the county expects "to come back and do some tweaking." The county also told WJCL that Building Safety and Regulatory Services will use a third-party vendor to find unlicensed rentals. Grandfathering protects existing licenses, so a home that has been rented without one has nothing to protect.
How This Changes the Due Diligence
On a Wilmington Island or Talahi Island purchase where rental income is part of the plan, these questions do the most to set the value.
- Whose name is the current license in, and is it a pre-existing license?
- Does the property qualify for an exemption as owner-occupied, a condominium or a parcel over 2 acres?
- Which Police Response Neighborhood district holds the parcel, and how close is that district to its 5% limit?
- How many guests can the home hold under the bedroom, septic and parking rules at the July 2027 renewal?
For sellers, the license history is still worth documenting, but it stays with them at closing. Pricing the home on what a buyer can actually obtain will hold up better than pricing it on what the seller earned. This post is general information about a county ordinance, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm how the rules apply to a specific property with the county and the right professional before you act.
FAQ
Does the county cap apply to Tybee Island or downtown Savannah? No. The September 25 rules cover unincorporated Chatham County. Wilmington Island and Talahi Island fall under them. Cities run their own rental programs.
Can a license pass to my children? The ordinance lets a pre-existing license holder's immediate family member who takes title apply without facing the cap, as long as they apply within six months of the transfer.
Are new applications open again? Yes. The September 25 vote lifted the moratorium. New applications filed after that date are subject to the cap in their district.
If you own a licensed rental on Wilmington Island or Talahi and want to know how the new county rules affect your sale price, Oliver Group can price the home on the license a buyer can actually get. Get a Home Valuation, and we'll start with your district.
