From 1 to 10 short-term rental apartments: how to scale your portfolio

You can run your first short-term rental apartment with a phone and a reliable cleaning company. From the third or fourth, the rules change: Order No. 948/2026 limits what you can classify as an individual to 7 rooms and 14 places, social contributions can rise sharply above that threshold, and every missed check-in is repeated across several homes. This guide splits the road from 1 to 10 units into stages and shows what changes at each one, legally, fiscally, operationally and financially, with the rules and figures in force in October 2026.

The four stages: what changes from 1 to 10 units

Each stage has a different constraint: first experience, then time, then the rules, and finally capital and risk. The stages below are indicative, because the legal threshold is measured in rooms and places, not apartments.

For an illustrative path from one apartment to eight in Bucharest, see our case study of an 8-unit portfolio.

The 7-room, 14-place limit: when to change your legal structure

Order No. 948/2026 states explicitly that individuals operating as economic operators may apply for classification for at most 7 rooms and 14 places in apartments and rooms for rent in privately owned homes, “regardless of the number of homes in which they are located”. Airbnb repeats the rule on its page for hosts in Romania: 7 rooms and 14 beds or sleeping places in total, across all properties. Beyond that limit, according to the platform, you need to register and operate through another form recognised under Romanian law, such as a PFA sole trader, an individual or family enterprise, or a company.

The limit has two components, and whichever you reach first is the one that counts:

• Rooms. Three apartments with two rooms to rent each make 6 rooms; a fourth two-room apartment takes you to 8, over the limit.
• Places. Five studios with three sleeping places each make only 5 rooms, but 15 places, so you are over the limit of 14.

Timing matters too. The Tax Code provides that the income becomes income from independent activities “starting with the tax year” in which the number of rooms rented short-term exceeds 7. The wording ties the change to the tax year, not to the month in which you add the eighth room, so a purchase made late in the year may affect the whole year’s income. Before you buy, check with an accountant how the rule applies to you. The steps of the classification application, including the owners’ association approval and the neighbours’ consent, are in our guide to Order 948/2026.

What changes for taxes and contributions

The good news is that income tax does not change. In a summary of the 2026 tax changes, ANAF explains that Law No. 239/2025 created a single system for income from tourist rentals “regardless of the form in which it is carried out”: net income is gross income minus a flat 30% allowance, the platform commission is not included in gross income, and the tax is 10% of net income. The difference lies in social contributions.

The amounts are calculated with the minimum wage of 4,050 lei, which applies to 2026 income, even though the minimum wage rose to 4,325 lei on 1 July 2026. The CASS thresholds for the up-to-7-rooms regime are explained in detail in our 2026 tax guide.

And if you choose a company?

An SRL (limited liability company) follows a different tax logic. According to KPMG’s 2026 tax guide:

• the micro-enterprise income tax is 1% from 1 January 2026, for companies with turnover of at most €100,000, calculated together with linked enterprises;
• the company needs at least one full-time employee, and a shareholder holding more than 25% may have only one micro-enterprise; if a condition is no longer met, the company moves to the 16% profit tax from that quarter;
• the money reaches you as salary or dividends; dividends are taxed at 16% and count, together with other income such as rent, towards the CASS thresholds.

Two structural decisions remain. If the apartments stay in your name, the company needs a right to use them, for example through a lease or a loan-for-use (comodat) agreement. If you sell them to the company, you pay the transfer tax, 3% if you have owned them for up to three years and 1% after that, plus notary costs. No structure suits everyone: ask your accountant for a simulation with your own figures for at least two options.

VAT: the threshold to watch at 8–10 units

Since 1 September 2025, the VAT exemption threshold for small businesses has risen from 300,000 to 395,000 lei a year. Exceeding it means you must apply for VAT registration, and accommodation is taxed at the reduced rate of 11%. A portfolio of 8–10 apartments can approach or exceed this threshold, so track your receipts monthly, together with your accountant. Airbnb also points out that prices raised to cover the new fee increase gross income and can bring you closer to the registration threshold.

The systems that hold a portfolio together

Up to 2–3 units, your memory does the job of a system. After that, anything that exists only in your head becomes a risk: a Wi-Fi password changed and never passed on, an old access code, linen missing on a Saturday with three check-outs. Four systems make the difference:

1. Written procedures. Check-in, cleaning with photos at the end, linen changes, inventory, defects and emergencies. Start from your notes on the first unit and update the procedure after every problem.
2. Standard equipment. The same linen sizes, consumables and appliances in every unit mean shared stock, larger orders and faster replacements. What you can standardise and what you should never cut is covered in our guide to cutting costs without lowering quality.
3. One calendar and one pricing logic. A PMS or channel manager syncs calendars across platforms. Hosts connected through such a system moved to Airbnb’s single 15.5% fee on 27 October 2025, and the other hosts in the European Economic Area and Switzerland are moving to the same fee, with a deadline of 13 October 2026 to adjust their prices. If you are not VAT-registered, you also pay 21% VAT on the fee, about 18.8% of the price, so build the cost into your rates. For pricing several units, a weekly routine helps more than one-off adjustments: see the 15-minute KeyBid Puls routine.
4. Compliance for every unit. The classification certificate on display, the occupancy record filled in, supplier contracts up to date. How to organise all this digitally is explained in our guide to digital check-in and compliant operations.

Co-hosts: each with the access they need

On Airbnb you can add co-hosts with three access levels. Choose the level according to each person’s role on the team:

As the listing owner, you are responsible for all co-hosts, including those added by a full-access co-host. Only you can set up co-host payouts, and co-hosts cannot see your payout method or taxpayer information. Check older co-hosts too: those added before 3 May 2023 have full access by default.

The team: employees, partner companies or a manager

Around the third or fourth unit, cleaning and check-ins no longer fit into a normal schedule. You have three options, which you can combine:

• Your own employees. You have direct control, but also an employer’s obligations: the minimum wage has been 4,325 lei gross since 1 July 2026, and the employment contract must be submitted to REGES-ONLINE no later than the day before work starts.
• Cleaning and maintenance companies. You pay against an invoice, and the company takes care of staff and cover. How to plan your team and partners for 2027 is explained in our guide to cleaning and maintenance staff.
• A manager. Works for a commission or a fixed fee and takes over some of the units or only the day-to-day operations. Set out in the contract who is responsible for guests, pricing, reviews and expenses.

Financing: why a loan alone won’t take you to 10 units

At October 2026 interest rates, an apartment bought with a 75% loan rarely pays its own instalment. In the example in our financing guide, a €105,000 apartment in Constanța brings in a net result of €3,080 a year, while the instalment at 7.5% over 30 years is about €6,600 a year: the difference, €294 a month, comes out of your salary. The net result can support a loan of only about 35% of the price. Multiply the gap by five units and you have a plan that depends on your salary, not on the apartments.

• Debt-to-income ratio. All your instalments, including new ones, generally cannot exceed 40% of your household’s net income, under the BNR rule that banks apply with small variations. Each new loan shrinks the room for the next one.
• Down payment. For a second home bought with a loan in lei, the minimum down payment is 25%, and on property investment loans Raiffeisen generally finances 70–75%. In our example, a €105,000 apartment needs around €40,000 in cash, including furnishing, costs and a reserve.
• Eligibility. Some standard mortgages have conditions that rule you out after your first purchases: at ING, for example, you may own at most one home when you apply. Investment loans also assess the rental plan and may, in some cases, take rental income into account.
• Reserve. Raiffeisen recommends a reserve fund of at least 6 instalments. With several loans, calculate the reserve on the total of your instalments.

Keep an eye on interest rates too: the BNR kept its monetary policy rate at 6.50% on 8 October 2026, and IRCC, the index used for variable-rate loans in lei, is 5.57% in the fourth quarter and will be 5.61% from 1 January 2027.

How to grow without depending only on the bank

• Reinvest your profits. Use the net result of your existing units for the next down payment. You grow more slowly, but every new unit is backed by a real track record of income.
• Borrow less. In our example, with a loan of about 35% of the price, the net result covers the instalment.
• Manage for others. Take on other owners’ apartments for a commission or a fixed fee. You need no capital for purchases, and the procedures, team and tools built for your own units work across more properties.

Diversification: cities, buildings and types of stay

Ten apartments in the same area are really a single bet. Diversification protects you from four risks:

• Seasonality. AirDNA (data updated on 6 October 2026) gives Bucharest a seasonality score of 94 and Constanța a score of 49; the higher the score, the less income varies from one month to the next. According to Crosspoint Research, an apartment in Constanța takes in around €1,500 in August, about one sixth of its annual income (€8,980), while in Bucharest the average is €1,006 a month, peaking in September. One unit on the coast and two in the city have a different income profile from three units on the coast.
• Local rules. The Affordable Housing Act, the draft regulation presented by the European Commission on 9 September 2026 and now being debated in the European Parliament, would let national, regional and local authorities decide whether to limit short-term rentals, provided the measures are evidence-based, necessary and proportionate. A portfolio in a single city depends on the decisions of a single city hall. You will find the details in our guide to the Affordable Housing Act.
• The building. Each unit needs the owners’ association’s approval and the consent of the directly affected neighbours, so several apartments in the same building depend on the same association. Buildings in seismic risk class I are excluded: Law No. 212/2022 prohibits renting out space in them, and Airbnb has started checking listings. Check before every purchase, following the steps in our seismic risk guide.
• Type of stay. Long off-season stays reduce your dependence on summer or event peaks. Bear in mind that stays of more than 30 days are taxed differently; how to build such offers is explained in our guide to off-season offers.

The indicators to track for each unit

With a single unit, your bank account tells you whether things are going well. With ten, averages hide problems: two very good apartments can cover for one that has been losing money for a year. Track these monthly, for each unit:

Compare each unit with the portfolio average and with the market in its area. How to read AirDNA and KeyBid Puls data correctly is explained in our guide to market data.

Common mistakes

• Counting apartments instead of rooms and places. The limit of 7 rooms and 14 places applies to the total, and studios with three sleeping places bring you closer to it faster than you think.
• Buying the unit that takes you over the threshold without a tax simulation. The difference in contributions can exceed 25,000 lei a year, as in the example above, and the change is tied to the tax year.
• Growing on credit with negative cash flow on every unit. Every apartment that needs money from your salary shrinks the room for the next loan and the reserve for weak months.
• Giving every co-host full access. You are responsible for everything they do, so give each one only the level they need.
• Working with people without a contract. The fine is 40,000 lei per person, and at 10 units the risk adds up.
• Concentrating everything in one building or one city. An association decision, a new local rule or a weak season then hits all your units at once.
• Looking only at the portfolio total. Without per-unit results, you don’t know which apartment needs repositioning, renovating or selling.

Frequently asked questions

How many short-term rental apartments can I have as an individual?

The limit is not about the number of apartments but about rooms and places: at most 7 rooms and 14 places, added up across all your homes. That could be, for example, three two-room apartments or seven studios with two places each. How each space counts in practice, such as a living room with a sofa bed, is something to check with the tourism authority before you submit your application.

Above 7 rooms, which is better: a PFA or an SRL?

It depends on your income, your costs and what you want to do with the money. With a PFA, the tax remains 10% of the flat-rate net income, but you pay CAS and CASS on income from independent activities. With an SRL micro-enterprise, the tax is 1% of revenue, but you need a full-time employee, and money taken out as dividends is taxed at 16%. Ask an accountant for a simulation with your figures, including the set-up and running costs of each structure.

Can I have several mortgages for short-term rental apartments?

Yes, but each new loan adds to your debt-to-income ratio: all your instalments generally cannot exceed 40% of your household’s net income. For a second home bought with a loan in lei, the minimum down payment is 25%, and some standard products have conditions that rule you out after your first purchase; at ING, for example, you may own at most one home when you apply. Property investment loans also assess the rental plan.

Can I grow without buying more apartments?

Yes, by managing other owners’ homes for a commission or a fixed fee, through your PFA or company. The procedures, team and tools built for your own units then work across more properties, with no capital needed for purchases. Set out in the contract who holds the classification certificate, who collects the money and who is responsible to guests.