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Author name: Jatin Dua

Jatin Dua is a Realtor with RE/MAX Quantum Realty serving Toronto and the GTA — helping buyers, sellers and investors across Etobicoke, Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan and beyond.

Semi-detached brick houses on a residential street, illustrating short-term rental licensing across GTA municipalities.
Municipal Rules and By-laws

Short-term rental rules across the GTA: all six require a licence, and all six require you to live there

Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Oakville, Burlington and Vaughan all regulate short-term rentals, all require a licence or registration, and all restrict it to a principal residence. The fees, the annual caps — and the two municipalities with no annual cap at all. Every figure from the municipality’s own by-law or page.

A row of older semi-detached brick houses on a Toronto street, illustrating multi-tenant house licensing.
Municipal Rules and By-laws

Toronto rooming houses are now legal city-wide — and there is a list you can search by address

Multi-tenant houses have been permitted across all of Toronto since 31 March 2024, with mandatory annual licensing under Chapter 575. The fees, the room caps that are set by zoning rather than the by-law and differ by district, the $100,000 penalties and $10,000-a-day continuing offence, the advertising reverse onus, and the daily-refreshed open dataset a buyer can check.

A suburban street of detached houses, illustrating HST on the sale of a property used for short-term rentals.
Tax and Ownership Rules

Short-term rentals and HST: the expensive surprise is on the sale, not the nightly rate

The Excise Tax Act excludes from residential complex status a building where all or substantially all arrangements are for periods under 60 days — and the exemption for selling a used residential complex then has nothing to attach to. Three different thresholds in three statutes, and the section 67.7 deduction denial that overrides the normal reassessment limits.

A residential street of brick houses in winter light, illustrating a change of use from principal residence to rental property.
Tax and Ownership Rules

Renting out the home you used to live in is a deemed sale — and one CCA claim can undo the fix

Section 45(1) deems a disposition at fair market value when a home becomes a rental or a rental becomes a home. The 45(2) and 45(3) elections defer it, the four-year limit sits in section 54 rather than section 45, section 54.1 extends it only on strict employer-relocation conditions, and section 45(4) deems a 45(3) election never made if any CCA was claimed.

A folder, key and blank paper on a desk, illustrating bare trust and T3 trust reporting for property owners.
Tax and Ownership Rules

Bare trusts and T3 reporting: where it actually stands for property owners

The CRA stated on 5 March 2026 that it does not expect bare trusts to file for taxation years ending in 2025, and the legislation now matches: the old rule was repealed for years ending after 30 December 2024 and the new narrower rule applies only to years ending after 30 December 2026. What a bare trust is in a real estate context, and why the coming carve-outs do not cover investment property.

A closed folder, a brass key and a calculator on a plain desk, illustrating Underused Housing Tax filing obligations.
Tax and Ownership Rules

The Underused Housing Tax is gone from 2025 — and still fully enforceable for 2022 to 2024

New sections 1.1 and 6.1 of the Underused Housing Tax Act remove both the tax and the filing requirement for 2025 and later years. But the Act is not repealed until 1 January 2035, and Budget 2025 states that all requirements, penalties and interest continue to apply for 2022 to 2024. The penalty minimums, and the ones the CRA’s own hub page has not caught up with.

A quiet street of detached brick houses under overcast skies, illustrating the prohibition on the purchase of residential property by non-Canadians.
Tax and Ownership Rules

The foreign buyer ban: it ends 1 January 2027, and it catches far less than people think

The prohibition applies only inside census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations, does not apply to vacant land since 27 March 2023, and does not apply to buildings of four or more dwelling units. The current expiry date and the instrument that set it, the full exception list, and the $10,000 fine that reaches anyone who knowingly assists.

An empty attic with rafters and dust in a shaft of daylight, illustrating checks on a property with a former grow operation.
Home Condition and Hazards

Former grow-ops in Ontario: there is no registry, but there is a title search

No provincial registry of former grow-op properties exists. What does is the Building Code Act order machinery: a registered property standards or unsafe-building order is discoverable on title, and a buyer acquiring an interest after registration is deemed served with it. Toronto’s by-law compared with Ottawa’s, and what building records will and will not show.

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