The regulation is wrong. The opportunity is real — and it’s bigger than people think.
I think the Chatham STR crackdown is the wrong tool for the problem, and I’ll tell you exactly why in about ninety seconds — but stay with me past that, because the more useful point is the one nobody’s saying out loud: if you already own a permitted short-term rental in one of these areas, Tybee and Chatham County just handed you something a new buyer cannot recreate at any price.
By Julie Gates | Team 912 at RE/MAX Accent
First, the objection.
The part of the Chatham STR crackdown I can’t get past
I have a hard time watching people tell another owner what to do with land they don’t own — that’s my honest reaction to the Chatham STR crackdown.
Look at the 500-foot separation rule proposed in unincorporated Chatham County. The guy who filed first gets to run a rental indefinitely. His neighbor — same street, same zoning, same tax bill — is permanently locked out. Not because of anything he did. Because of where somebody else’s paperwork landed. That’s not regulation of a nuisance. That’s a lottery handed out on timing.
And be honest about the mechanics: most of these rules grandfather existing operators and lock the door behind them. The absentee owner renting for six years is fine. The local family that might want to rent the back house in five years when a kid goes to college is out. The rules are sold as protecting neighborhoods; the actual effect is protecting incumbents — many of whom aren’t local at all. On Tybee, two of the largest rental management operations were just bought by an outside company. Ask who the caps really shelter.
Zoning I have no problem with. It’s legitimate, it’s known at purchase, and it applies to everyone in the district equally. Commercial districts do commerce. Residential districts are for living in. But here’s what gets skipped: a short-term rental is people living in a residence. Someone sleeps there, showers, cooks, and leaves. The use is residential. The complaint is about who the neighbors are and how long they stay — that’s a preference, not a land-use category.
If you want control over what happens on a parcel, there’s a clean way to get it: buy it. If you can’t, the honest position is to be a great neighbor and hold rentals to the same standard as everyone else on the street. Noise, parking, occupancy, trash, code enforcement — enforce all of it, hard, on everyone. I have zero objection to a city coming down on a genuine party house. Bad operators make the case for the people who want us all gone.
That’s the distinction. Regulate behavior and you have my full support. Regulate who’s allowed to own an income-producing asset based on a map and a filing date, and you’ve stopped governing conduct and started allocating opportunity.
The other side, fairly stated: full-time residents aren’t imagining the problem. Concentrated rentals do change a street — turnover, noise, fewer year-round neighbors. Those are real concerns held by reasonable people. My disagreement isn’t that the concern is fake; it’s that caps and moratoriums punish the parcel instead of the behavior, entrench whoever got there first, and don’t make a bad operator behave. Enforcement does that. Caps just decide who’s allowed to try.
That’s my position on the Chatham STR crackdown. Now the part that matters more to your balance sheet.
The Chatham STR Crackdown’s Silver Lining Nobody’s Saying Out Loud
I’ve been doing this in Savannah since 2004. One thing I’ve learned: regulation you don’t like and an opportunity you do like are frequently the same event.
Here’s what I actually see happening inside the Chatham STR crackdown.
1. If you already own in a restricted area, your asset just got harder to replicate
This is the one people are missing while they’re busy being angry.
A moratorium on new applications means no new supply. A sector cap means no new supply. A 500-foot spacing rule means no new supply. If you hold a valid, active certificate in one of these areas, you are now holding something that cannot be recreated by the next buyer at any price. That’s not a small thing. Scarcity of a legal right to operate is a different animal than scarcity of inventory.
Now stack the second factor on top: operators are tired. Two soft years, the 2024–25 consolidation, rising costs, and now a regulatory fight. I’m talking to burned-out owners constantly right now. Over the next year or two, I expect a meaningful number of them to sell or simply stop — which thins the competition inside the very areas where nobody new can enter.
Less competition, capped supply, and a permitted right that can’t be reissued. I’m not going to promise you a number, and anyone who does is selling something — occupancy, rates, and rules can all still move against you. But the structural logic is straightforward, and it points one direction.
2. Demand doesn’t disappear. It relocates.
This is the piece of the Chatham STR crackdown that gets lost in the noise. Restricting supply in one area doesn’t reduce the number of people coming to the coast — it redirects where they sleep.
Savannah’s Historic District and the City of Savannah operate under their own separate framework, untouched by any of this. The permitted areas of Tybee are still permitted. Every guest who would have booked a new rental in unincorporated Chatham has to go somewhere, and there are now fewer somewheres.
More guests concentrated into fewer legal doors is a favorable setup for the people who own those doors. Again — not a guarantee, and not evenly distributed; a bad property in a good zone is still a bad property. But if you’re deciding where to deploy capital in this market, the legal, permitted areas just got structurally more interesting than they were in June.
3. The people who survive this cycle will be positioned unusually well
Let’s not pretend the last two years were fun. STR performance has been down. Now investors are absorbing the Chatham STR crackdown on top of it. That combination is exactly what pushes marginal operators out.
It’s also exactly what has preceded every good buying window I’ve seen in twenty-plus years. Not because things magically improve, but because the buyer pool thins out right when the sellers get motivated. The person who is still standing in 2028 — operating legally, in a permitted zone, with clean books and a certificate that can’t be replaced — is going to be in a materially better spot than the person who took the last two years off.
That is a bet on execution, not on hope. It requires actually underwriting the deal, verifying the certificate status in writing, and not paying today for a rule that hasn’t been adopted. Everything in my breakdown of what is actually law versus merely proposed still applies, and it applies more now, not less.
Four cycles, still here
I started investing in Savannah in 2004. Since then I’ve been through the 2008 collapse, the post-crash grind, COVID, and the 2024–25 short-term rental consolidation. Four cycles. I’m still here, still buying, still managing, still brokering.
The people who didn’t make it weren’t unlucky. Most of them were overleveraged, or they were following someone who had never actually owned anything, or they were only set up to make money when the line went up. I’m deeply debt-averse for exactly this reason. Cycles aren’t a surprise — they’re the job.
Which brings me to something worth being blunt about: be careful whose advice you’re taking right now.
A lot of people in this industry only eat when the market is hot. When it gets hard, they go quiet, pivot to selling a course, or disappear entirely — and they resurface when things are easy again. Ask a simple question of anyone advising you: does this person make money when the market is down?
I do, and I’ve structured it that way on purpose. I earn a percentage of the rental revenue I actually generate on the properties I manage, which means I get paid on performance, not on promises. I earn a commission when a transaction closes, which means I get paid when a deal is genuinely worth doing. And I own property here myself. When the market turns, my incentives don’t change, because I’m sitting on the same side of the table you are.
That’s also why down markets are where I get loud instead of quiet. Down markets are where investors get their best deals. Motivated sellers, less competition at the table, and real negotiating leverage — none of which exists when everyone’s euphoric. The Chatham STR crackdown and the regulatory noise on Tybee are scaring a chunk of the buyer pool right now. Historically, that’s the window.
Where the Chatham STR crackdown leaves you
If you own in a restricted area: you’re holding something scarcer than you were three months ago. Don’t panic-sell into a headline.
If you’re looking to buy: focus on the legal, permitted areas, verify every certificate claim in writing before you’re under contract, and don’t pay today for a proposed ordinance that may never be adopted.
If you’re waiting for it to “settle down”: understand that by the time it does, the pricing will reflect it.
As the Chatham STR crackdown and Tybee’s process both evolve, I’m tracking both governments — the Tybee hearing rescheduled for August 13 and whatever Chatham County does when its moratorium runs out in November. If you want to know exactly which rules apply to a specific parcel before you write an offer, that’s a conversation worth having now rather than after.
Team 912 · julie@team912.com · (912) 600-2893
About the author
Julie Gates has been investing in the Savannah, GA market since 2004, through the 2008 downturn, COVID, and the 2024–25 short-term rental consolidation. She is a licensed RE/MAX broker and leader of Team 912, an investor-focused real estate team, and founder of Sid Was Here, a Savannah-based property management company. She is a Forbes Business Council member and a contributor to BiggerPockets’ The 30-Day Stay (2023). She invests in, brokers, and manages property in the same market — which means she underwrites regulation as an owner, not as a commentator.
The views in this article are the author’s own opinions on public policy and do not represent the positions of RE/MAX, RE/MAX Accent, or any affiliated organization.
This article is for general informational purposes only and is not legal, tax, or investment advice. No rental income, occupancy, appreciation, permit approval, or investment outcome is guaranteed. Short-term rental regulations in Tybee Island and Chatham County are actively changing; confirm current requirements directly with the applicable jurisdiction and consult your own attorney before acting on anything discussed here.
Team 912 is a real estate team affiliated with RE/MAX Accent, 6602 Abercorn St, Suite 102, Savannah, GA 31405 · (912) 756-5888. Each office independently owned and operated.
