Folly Beach to Freeze New Rental Permits Until 2027

Folly Beach's city council is set to vote on two fronts at once: whether to appeal a circuit court ruling that voided the city's short-term rental cap and licensing fees, and whether to stop issuing any new rental permits until 2027 no matter how that appeal turns out. For anyone hoping to get a rental license on the South Carolina barrier island in the next two years, the second vote matters more than the first.

The ruling being appealed threw out the numeric cap Folly Beach had placed on short-term rental licenses along with the fee schedule tied to it, on grounds the city had overstepped its authority. That decision reopened the question of how many rentals the island can host and who gets to decide. Rather than let the cap's collapse mean an open door for new licenses, the council appears ready to freeze the permit pipeline entirely while it fights the ruling in a higher court.

What the permit freeze actually blocks

A freeze through 2027 would not touch rentals already licensed. Owners operating legally today keep their permits and can keep booking guests. What stops is new issuance: anyone who bought a Folly Beach property hoping to add it to the short-term market, or who has been waiting on a pending application, would be locked out for roughly two more years regardless of how the appeal resolves.

Why the city is going back to court

Folly Beach has spent several years trying to cap rental density on an island with limited housing stock and heavy seasonal traffic. Losing the cap in court removes the main tool the city built for that purpose. An appeal keeps the legal fight alive and buys time; a freeze on new permits does the practical work the cap used to do while that fight plays out, without relying on a mechanism a judge has already rejected once.

What current and prospective hosts should do

Anyone with an active Folly Beach rental license has no immediate action to take, though it is worth confirming renewal terms have not shifted in the wake of the ruling. Anyone planning to apply for a new license, or buying property on the assumption one will be available soon, should treat 2027 as the earliest realistic date and build that delay into any purchase or investment timeline. The appeal's outcome could still reshape the rules again before then, but nothing in the current proposal suggests new permits arrive sooner.

The case adds to a run of South Carolina coastal towns testing how far local governments can go in restricting short-term rentals without state legislation to back them up, and Folly Beach's own cap has already been rewritten once by a judge who struck down its rental cap and fees. Whether the freeze survives a further challenge is now the question hosts on the island are watching.