In an effort to “drastically” cut down on short-term rentals like Airbnbs, Kennett Square council passed an ordinance Monday capping the number of active units and restricting where they’re able to pop up.
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Council voted unanimously to update its ordinance, allowing for a maximum of 20 short-term rentals, and prohibiting single-family homes from turning into short-term rentals as their primary use.
The decision comes after the borough has seen soaring population growth in recent years — an increase of 16% since 2020 — but as housing has become increasingly limited.
Residents had decried several homes getting snapped up, only to be turned into full-time short-term rentals. The borough’s planning commission took up the issue again this year, after a first foray in 2025 didn’t go far enough, officials said previously.
Under the new short-term rental ordinance, the existing units — roughly 22 — will be grandfathered in. But if people sell, move, or don’t maintain rental registration, that status is gone. Future rentals will only be allowed in accessory units — like garages, or guest houses — and the number of available units won’t be able to exceed 20. The property must be owner-occupied during the rental period. Pre-existing short-term rentals will lose their grandfathering status if they don’t maintain rental registration.
“The net effect of this is to actually drastically reduce the potential number of short-term rentals,” council president Bob Norris said. “But it actually reduces the possibility and the probability of having more and more, especially in single-family homes, which we heard loud and clear was a major issue.”
In Chester County, which saw some of the highest population growth in Pennsylvania between 2020 and 2024, the demand for housing is outpacing supply. Fewer single-family detached homes were built in 2024 than in the last several years, according to the county’s planning commission, and fewer new units were being constructed this decade compared with last.
Meanwhile, cost is going up. In 2024, the median sales price hit $525,000 — the highest in the county’s history. That year, 331 homes sold for under $250,000, a decrease from 462 units in 2023, according to the commission. In 2025, 315 homes were sold in that range, making up just 5.3% of all sales.
Kennett Square officials have viewed cutting down on the short-term rentals as one way to address housing availability.
Kennett Square isn’t the only one to grapple with balancing meeting the needs of tourism with the desires of residents. West Chester similarly capped its short-term rentals at 20, and contained them to its town center. It sent cease-and-desist letters to those that weren’t in that radius, officials said previously. But in Phoenixville, short-term rentals have been meeting a need not otherwise addressed by the borough’s singular boutique hotel.
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