Toronto has some of the strictest short-term rental rules in North America. They are not complicated once you see them laid out, but getting one wrong can cost you your listing, your registration, and a fine. Here is the complete picture as it stands in 2026, in plain language.
Any rental of 27 consecutive nights or fewer. The moment a stay runs 28 nights or longer, it falls outside the short-term rental bylaw entirely. That distinction matters more than most owners realize, and we will come back to it, because it is the single biggest lever for owners whose property does not qualify under the bylaw.
You can only operate a short-term rental in the home you actually live in. That can be a house, a condo, or a secondary suite, but it has to be your principal residence. An investment condo you do not live in cannot legally be listed as a nightly Airbnb in Toronto, full stop.
If that describes your property, it can still earn strong returns. Stays of 28 nights or more are exempt from the bylaw, which is exactly what corporate and mid-term rental management is built around: furnished monthly stays for relocating professionals, insurance cases, and film industry crews.
Every operator must register with the City of Toronto before hosting a single guest. Registration is done through the City’s online portal, must be renewed every year, and your registration number has to appear on every listing and advertisement, on every platform. Airbnb and other platforms will not activate a Toronto listing without a valid registration number, and the City runs enforcement against listings that display fake or expired numbers.
If you rent out your entire home, you are capped at 180 nights per calendar year. Renting individual rooms while you live there is not subject to the cap. The City receives booking data from the platforms, so the cap is enforced with real numbers, not the honour system.
A well-run property does not treat the cap as a ceiling on income. The strategy we use at Certus is to maximize nightly revenue inside the 180 nights, then pivot the calendar to 28-plus-night stays for the remainder of the year, which sit outside the bylaw and keep the property earning.
Toronto charges a 6% Municipal Accommodation Tax on short-term rental revenue. Guests pay it on top of the nightly rate. Airbnb collects and remits it automatically for bookings made through its platform. If you take direct bookings or use platforms that do not remit on your behalf, you are responsible for collecting and filing it yourself.
The bylaw is the floor, not the ceiling. Many Toronto condo corporations prohibit short-term rentals outright or impose their own minimum-stay rules, and the condo declaration wins. Check your building’s rules before you list, because the City registration does not override them.
The City can refuse or revoke your registration, order platforms to delist your property, and issue fines. Platforms cooperate with Toronto enforcement, so operating unregistered is a short-lived strategy that usually ends with a removed listing and a paper trail.
Registered with the City, renewal calendared, registration number on every listing, nights tracked against the cap, MAT accounted for, and a plan for the property once the 180 nights run out. It is all manageable, but it is real administrative work, which is why our Airbnb management service in Toronto includes licensing support: we handle the registration, the display requirements, the night tracking, and the pivot to longer stays when the cap approaches.
Thinking about hosting, or already hosting and not sure you are onside? Book a free consultation and we will walk through your specific situation, no pressure.
Share this post
Toronto property management and short-term rental specialists. We manage Airbnb, mid-term, and long-term rentals across the GTA.
