To deal with “illegal ghost hotels” and help free up city housing, the City of Toronto is enforcing new rules to ensure that people only rent out their primary residence as a short term rental. 

The new regulations will come into effect on Thursday after concerns that homes being used for short-term rentals hurt the city’s long term rentals. 

Thorben Wieditz, a spokesperson with housing advocacy group FairBnb Canada, said: We have been advocating for this since 2016, and our efforts have prevailed, if even half of the currently illegal 6,500 entire home listings were returned to the long-term rental housing market, the city’s vacancy rate would increase from 1.3 per cent to 2 per cent, providing sorely needed relief to home-seekers.”

To operate in Toronto, short term rental operators will have to register their primary residence with the city’s new registration system.

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