Landlord guide · Short-term rentals
Toronto's short-term rental rules for 2026: who can host, and what it costs
Short answer
In Toronto you can only rent short term, under 28 days at a time, in your own principal residence, after registering with the City for $390 a year. A whole home can be rented for no more than 180 nights a year, and stays carry a 6% Municipal Accommodation Tax. Investment and secondary properties can only be rented long-term.
Who can host a short-term rental in Toronto
A short-term rental in Toronto is any rental of all or part of a home for less than 28 days in a row. You can only offer one if:
- It's your principal residence, the home where you live and that you use for official documents. You can have only one, so you can't legally run more than one short-term rental.
- You're 18 or older and registered with the City before you advertise.
- The unit has only one registration. Since September 30, 2024, each dwelling unit can have just one.
Investment and secondary properties can only be rented long-term, for 28 days or more. For a condo or house you don't live in, that means a tenant on Ontario's standard lease, which is what our tenant placement service arranges.
Tenants can host in their own principal residence too. The City doesn't require the landlord's consent, but it tells tenants to check their lease or get written consent first, so it's worth saying in the lease whether you allow it.
Registration and the 180-night limit
Registration costs $390 for 2026, isn't refundable, lasts a year from approval and must be renewed every year. The fee usually rises each year. The City can ask for at least two documents showing the home is your principal residence, and for an in-person interview.
How much you can host depends on what you rent:
- The entire home: no more than 180 nights in a calendar year. The count resets on January 1.
- Rooms, while you live there: no night limit, up to three bedrooms. Since January 1, 2025, you can advertise one fewer bedroom than your home has, and you can't rent the whole home at the same time.
Since January 1, 2025, you choose entire-home or rooms status for each registration period, and every rental night counts toward the 180, whichever type it was.
The 6% Municipal Accommodation Tax
Stays of less than 28 days carry a 6% Municipal Accommodation Tax. It's reported and paid quarterly, within 30 days after each quarter ends, and you file a report for every period, even one with no bookings.
Basement apartments, laneway suites and condos
A secondary suite or laneway suite can be a short-term rental only if it's your principal residence, and only if the suite is permitted by zoning and meets the Building Code and Fire Code. If you live in the main house, you can't rent the suite short term separately; it can still be rented long-term.
Condo owners can host in a unit that's their principal residence, but the condo corporation's declaration and rules still apply, and some buildings prohibit short-term rentals altogether. Read them before you register.
Listings, inspections and fines
Your City registration number, in the form STR-0000-XXXXXX, must appear on every advertisement and listing, and on invoices, contracts and receipts. The details in your listings must match your registration exactly. Since 2024, hosts must also post emergency contact information and an exit diagram in the rental, and the City began yearly compliance inspections in 2025.
| Offence | Fine |
|---|---|
| Operating without registering, or advertising without the number | $1,000 ticket |
| Renting a property that isn't your principal residence | $1,000 ticket |
| Renting an entire home for more than 180 nights | $700 ticket |
| On conviction in court | Up to $100,000, or up to $10,000 a day for a continuing offence |
The City can also revoke a registration. You have 10 days to respond to a notice that it intends to.
Short-term or long-term?
If the home isn't your principal residence, Toronto has already decided: it rents long-term. If it is, the cap and the costs shape the choice. A whole home can earn short-term income for at most 180 nights a year, after the registration fee, the 6% tax, cleaning, furnishing and platform fees, and with the work of turnovers. A long-term tenant pays every month, with none of those costs, under the protections of Ontario's standard lease.
One more cost to weigh: a home left empty six months or more in a year can owe Toronto's Vacant Home Tax, 3% of its assessed value. Our vacant home tax guide explains how tenancies count.
Rules in other Ontario cities
Most large Ontario cities now limit short-term rentals to the host's own home, but the details vary: Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan, Hamilton, Ottawa and London all have principal-residence rules, while some tourist towns cap the number of licences and Lakeshore doesn't allow short-term rentals at all. Our Ontario rental rules by city compares them, with a link to each city's source.
Sources
- City of Toronto, Short-term rental operators and hosts (updated September 16, 2026)
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