Toronto's rules on short term rentals have a reputation for complexity that they do not quite deserve. The structure is simple, and most of the confusion owners carry comes from hearing fragments of it secondhand, often from someone with something to sell. The city draws one clear line, and nearly everything else follows from which side of that line a rental sits on.

This note explains the rules in general terms, as orientation rather than legal advice. The specifics change from time to time, so before acting on any of this, confirm the current requirements with the city directly.

The line the city draws

Toronto treats any stay of fewer than 28 consecutive nights as a short term rental. Offering a home this way is restricted to a host's principal residence, meaning the home the host actually lives in, and it requires registration with the city. The rules were written to stop investors from converting ordinary housing into informal hotels, and they are enforced with that purpose in mind.

Stays of 28 nights or more sit outside the short term rental framework entirely. A furnished unit rented by the month is, from the city's point of view, ordinary rental housing. It requires no short term registration because it is not a short term rental. This single distinction carries more weight than everything else in the rulebook combined, and it is the piece owners most often miss.

What principal residence means for an investor

The principal residence requirement is where most investor plans quietly end. If you live in the unit, the short term route may be open to you once registered: you can host a spare room, or host the whole home while you travel. If the unit is an investment property you do not live in, nightly and weekly rentals are simply not available to you under the current rules.

Some owners receive this as bad news, because nightly rates look generous on paper. In our experience the arithmetic rarely favoured nightly rentals for an investor anyway, once cleaning after every stay, gaps in the calendar, platform charges, and constant turnover were counted honestly. The rule closed a door that mostly led somewhere disappointing.

The model built on the other side of the line

A medium term rental, meaning furnished stays of a month or more, is the model that lives on the workable side of the 28 night line. If the term is new to you, what a medium term rental is covers the basics. The guests are typically professionals rather than tourists: people relocating for work, staffing a project, or holding a placement at a hospital or studio, who need a real home for a few months rather than a room for a weekend.

Because these stays sit outside the short term framework, an investor who lives elsewhere can operate them. The differences between the two models run deeper than legality, from guest quality to wear on the unit, and we compare them properly in medium term versus short term rentals in Toronto.

Two more layers to check

The city is not the only rulemaker with a say over your unit. Your condo corporation's declaration and rules can restrict rentals in ways the city does not, and some buildings are stricter about stay length than the city is. We walk through how to approach those documents in condo bylaws and stays of a month or more.

The city's own rules also change. Definitions get amended, registration requirements evolve, and enforcement priorities shift. Treat everything you read, including this note, as a starting point, and verify the current rules before committing to a model.

Bbyrent manages Toronto homes exclusively for stays of a month or more, which keeps every property we run on the straightforward side of the line. If you are weighing what your unit could honestly earn under that model, the free modeling behind our waitlist is a calm place to start.

Frequently asked questions

Can I run a short term rental in a Toronto condo I do not live in?

Under the current rules, no. Stays of fewer than 28 consecutive nights are restricted to a host's principal residence, with city registration, so a unit you do not live in cannot be offered nightly or weekly. Stays of 28 nights or more fall outside those rules and remain open to investors, subject to your building's own requirements.

Do I need a licence to rent my Toronto condo for a month or more?

Stays of 28 nights or more sit outside the city's short term rental registration system, so that registration does not apply. You remain an ordinary landlord with ordinary obligations, and your condo corporation may impose its own restrictions, so read your declaration and rules and confirm the city's current requirements before you begin.

What counts as a short term rental in Toronto?

Any stay of fewer than 28 consecutive nights counts as a short term rental under the city's rules. At 28 nights or more, the stay is treated as ordinary rental housing. The threshold concerns the length of each individual stay, and owners should check the city's current rules, since definitions and requirements change over time.

Toronto short term rental rules, in plain language