Updated September 2026 · Reviewed by Achille Mahieu, Oabitat real estate specialist in Rio de Janeiro
Every property on this page sits in a building where short-term letting is permitted. Since the Superior Tribunal de Justiça ruled in May 2026 that letting through platforms requires the condominium convention to allow it, that single fact decides whether a Rio apartment can be run as an Airbnb at all — and it is not something you can tell from a listing photograph, a price, or an agent's enthusiasm.
These are mostly apartments and penthouses for sale in Ipanema, Copacabana and Leblon, bought by people who intend to let them out. Use the search above to filter by neighbourhood, size and price, and use the calculator below to see what a given purchase price and nightly rate actually return.
It means we have read the building's convenção de condomínio and the recent assembly minutes, and found nothing that prohibits short-term letting. That is a meaningful filter in a market where most buildings either forbid it or have never decided.
It is not a guarantee, and we would rather say so plainly than sell you certainty we cannot give. A convention can be amended by a two-thirds majority of owners under Article 1,351 of the Civil Code, and the Superior Tribunal de Justiça has not yet issued its binding thesis on the question. What we can tell you is what the documents say today, and we will hand you those documents rather than asking you to take our word for it.
In every other part of the Rio market you buy the apartment. Here you buy the building's rules first and the apartment second.
On 7 May 2026 the STJ decided REsp 2.121.055 by a 5–4 majority: recurrent short-term letting through digital platforms undermines a unit's strictly residential purpose and approaches hotel operation, so it is permissible only where the condominium convention expressly authorises it. On 8 June 2026 the court took REsp 2.272.536 and 2.272.537 as Tema 1.443, with Minister Raul Araújo as rapporteur, and suspended every related case in Brazil pending a binding thesis. The open question is whether a plain "residential use" clause alone is enough to bar platform letting.
The practical consequence is unambiguous: the convention of the specific building now governs, and it must be read before you offer, not after. Our note on what the STJ decision changes goes through the reasoning in full.
Conventions are amended at assembleias, and a building that permitted short lets three years ago may have voted otherwise since. The minutes also reveal whether the subject is contested — a building where owners are actively arguing about it is a different risk from one where nobody has raised it.
A building can permit short letting on paper and make it miserable in practice: no guest access without the owner present, no luggage in the social lift, restricted pool use. We ask, because it changes what you can actually offer a guest.
Permission is not evenly distributed across the city, and the pattern is fairly consistent.
Ipanema holds more than half of our Airbnb-friendly stock and is where the economics work best: the highest nightly rates in Brazil, the steadiest year-round occupancy, and guests who come for the beach, for work and for family visits in roughly equal measure. Buildings here are often mid-century, mixed in ownership, and historically relaxed about letting.
Copacabana has the largest permissive building stock in the city, by a wide margin, and entry prices well below Ipanema. That is also the problem: supply is heavy, price competition is fierce, and the quality of buildings varies sharply from one street to the next. It is the right choice for a first purchase at a lower entry price, provided you are honest about the nightly rate you will achieve.
Leblon is the hardest place in Rio to find permission. The buildings are smaller, the ownership more settled, and conventions more often restrictive. That scarcity is exactly why the apartments that do qualify command the rates they do.
Botafogo suits longer business stays and has flatter seasonality. Barra da Tijuca's gated condominiums are generally the most restrictive in the city — large, professionally managed, and inclined to prohibit. Treat any Barra listing advertised as short-let friendly with particular care.
Across Rio de Janeiro there are roughly 32,200 active short-term listings, at an average daily rate near US$121, an occupancy rate of 40.8% and average annual revenue per listing of about US$12,800, in the twelve months to July 2026.
That occupancy figure deserves a moment: the average Rio short-let is empty three nights in five. Against it, long-term letting in Rio returned a gross yield of 6.25% in June 2026 on the FipeZAP index, with one tenant and no turnover costs.
Short-letting beats that comfortably at the top of the market and loses to it in the middle. What separates the two is not the city — it is the building, the view, the outdoor space, the furnishing and whether somebody competent is running it. The calculator above is set to the city averages; change the nightly rate and occupancy to the ones we quote you for a specific apartment and the picture usually looks quite different.
Platform commission, cleaning and linen between every stay, the monthly condomínio, IPTU, utilities held in your name year-round, furnishing and its replacement, income tax on the rental income, and management if you are not in Rio. Short-letting also wears an apartment far harder than a long lease, and Rio's climate is unkind to furniture, paint and air-conditioning.
Rio's short-let year is unusually peaked. Réveillon and Carnival earn a multiple of an ordinary week, and the weeks around them are strong. The low season is long. Any model that annualises a Carnival week is not a model.
There is no restriction on foreign nationals owning urban residential property in Brazil, and no visa or residency requirement. You need a CPF, the individual taxpayer number, which also allows you to declare the rental income; it can be obtained at a Brazilian consulate abroad or online before you arrive. Rural land and border areas carry restrictions, and neither applies in Zona Sul.
Purchase costs run to ITBI at 3% of the transfer value in Rio, registry and notary fees, and legal review. Our legal and tax guide covers the certidões and the full sequence. A purchase can be completed remotely with a power of attorney signed at a Brazilian consulate.
Two things are unresolved, and any honest adviser will tell you so. The STJ's binding thesis under Tema 1.443 is pending. Separately, Rio's city council has been working on Projeto de Lei 372/2025, which would require host and property registration, Cadastur inscription, and municipal tax collected through the platforms; a commission approved its report in December 2025, but it has not passed the full chamber and is not in force.
The sensible response is not to avoid the market but to buy something that survives a rule change: an apartment that also works as a long-term rental or resells to an owner-occupier. That way the investment does not depend on one clause staying as it is.
We obtain the convention and the recent assembly minutes before you offer, not during conveyancing. We tell you when a building is a bad bet, including when that costs us a sale. We give you a nightly rate and occupancy estimate based on comparable units in that building or street rather than a city average. And if you want it managed afterwards, we run short lets for owners who live abroad — listing, pricing, guest screening, check-in, cleaning, maintenance and a monthly statement — in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.
That we have read the building's condominium convention and its recent assembly minutes and found nothing prohibiting short-term letting. It is a documented position rather than a guarantee: conventions can be amended by a two-thirds majority of owners, and the STJ's binding ruling on the question is still pending. We provide the documents so you can form your own view.
Short-term letting is lawful in Brazil as locação por temporada under Article 48 of Lei 8.245/91. The constraint is the condominium: on 7 May 2026 the STJ held in REsp 2.121.055 that platform letting is permissible only where the convention expressly authorises it, and in June it suspended related cases nationwide under Tema 1.443 pending a binding thesis. So legality turns on your specific building.
Yes. A convention can be amended by a two-thirds majority of owners under Article 1,351 of the Civil Code. This is the central risk in the category, and the reason we suggest buying apartments that also perform as long-term rentals or resell well to owner-occupiers.
City-wide the average listing ran at about US$121 a night with 40.8% occupancy and roughly US$12,800 of annual revenue in the twelve months to July 2026, across some 32,200 listings — gross, before commission, cleaning, condomínio, IPTU, furnishing and tax. A well-located Ipanema or Leblon apartment with a view or terrace earns considerably more. Use the calculator above with the figures for a specific property.
Not automatically. Long-term letting produced a 6.25% gross yield in Rio in June 2026 with one contract and little effort, while the average short-let sits empty three nights in five and carries commission, cleaning, furnishing and management costs. Short-letting wins clearly in the top tier and loses in the average case. Model the specific apartment, not the category.
Yes. Urban residential property carries no ownership restriction for foreign nationals and requires no visa or residency. You need a CPF, which also lets you declare the rental income. The purchase can be completed remotely with a power of attorney signed at a Brazilian consulate.
Not at present. Projeto de Lei 372/2025 would introduce host and property registration, Cadastur inscription and platform tax collection, and a commission approved its report in December 2025, but it has not passed the full council and is not in force. Assume registration is coming and budget for it.
Ipanema for the highest rates and steadiest occupancy, Copacabana for a lower entry price and more permissive buildings at the cost of heavier competition, Leblon for scarcity value where permission exists. Barra da Tijuca's gated condominiums are generally the most restrictive in the city.
Yes, for owners who do not live in Rio: listing and pricing, guest screening, check-in and check-out, cleaning and linen, maintenance, and a monthly statement. Most of the apartments we sell in this category end up managed by us, which is also why we are careful about which buildings we recommend.
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