Real estate group lists 10 properties for short-term rental in Nantucket

The Copley Group, a Boston-based real estate company and one of Nantucket’s largest short-term rental operators, has put most of its island portfolio on the market, potentially putting hundreds of families out of renting these properties in the future.

The move comes less than two weeks after island residents voted to reject a zoning bylaw amendment that would have automatically allowed short-term rentals in residential zoning districts, then approved a ban on ownership by short-term rental companies. It’s unclear how the ban, if approved by the state attorney general, would affect rentals owned by The Copley Group.

As first reported by the Nantucket Current, Maury People Sotheby’s International Realty listed 10 of the Copley Group’s 12 properties as vacation rentals on Sunday.

The properties range in price from $3.99 million to $5.99 million, which when combined means the Copley Group is asking more than $38.9 million for the 10 homes.

According to city assessor records, between 2012 and 2019, the Copley Group acquired 10 homes in a series of transactions totaling about $17 million.

With few hotels and no resorts, Nantucket has seen owners rent their properties to vacationers for a century.

In recent years, the debate over short-term rentals has heated up on Nantucket. Since 2021, residents have rejected four proposals limiting who in the island community can rent their homes and for how long.

The Copley group has been at the center of this debate. Founder Norman Levenson, a decades-long Nantucket resident, was first targeted by ACK Now, the political action group led by millionaire Peter McCausland, when the group financially supported neighbors who sued his business in justice for one of its short-term rentals in 2020.

According to real estate records, the Copley Group sold the property for $3.2 million, dismissing the suit.

The Current reported that Levenson responded by funding efforts to defeat ACK Now’s proposed mandate articles that attempted to reduce short-term rentals on the island by launching the Alliance to Protect Nantucket’s Economy in 2023 .

In turn, ACK Now argued that short-term rentals owned by companies like The Copley Group drive up housing prices and rents, driving out neighborhoods year-round.

“Without rental housing on the island, the economy would not be the same,” Levenson said. N Magazine in 2021. “Restaurants won’t do the same thing, retailers, it impacts t-shirt shops, charter boats, tourist buses. People who live on the island all year round work in all of these places.

Levenson and listing broker Gary Winn did not respond to a request for comment on the property sales.