Short Term Rentals in Quebec: The Rules

When you buy a property to rent out by the night, the profitability math comes last. What decides the project is three authorizations that do not substitute for one another: the provincial registration, the municipal zoning and, in a condo building, the declaration. Miss one and the building cannot be rented legally, even if the other two are in order.

General information, not legal or tax advice. The rules have moved fast since 2023 and several measures came into force in 2026: validate your case with your notary, your lawyer and the city concerned.

The registration number: the step nothing replaces

The Loi sur l’hébergement touristique (Quebec’s tourist accommodation act) defines a tourist accommodation establishment as a place where at least one unit, a bed, a room, an apartment, a house or a cottage, is offered for rent to tourists for payment for a period not exceeding 31 days. Article 4 is blunt: operating such an establishment is subject to registration with the minister. In practice, the number is issued by the Corporation de l’industrie touristique du Québec (CITQ), Quebec’s tourist industry corporation, and it is a six digit number.

Three details buyers discover too late. Article 5 requires the application to include a document from a competent authority showing that the operation does not contravene the urban planning by-law on permitted uses. Article 20 imposes an annual renewal. And article 7 fits in eight words: no one may transfer the registration. The seller’s number does not follow you to the deed of sale.

The CITQ also requires proof of civil liability insurance of at least $2,000,000 per claim, the owner’s authorization if you are a tenant, and the syndicate’s authorization if the building is held in divided co-ownership.

Municipal zoning decides whether short term rental is allowed

This is the layer people forget. The registration number creates no right of use: it assumes the city already allows it.

Article 23 of the act protects one case only, the principal residence establishment, meaning accommodation offered through a single reservation in the principal residence of the individual who operates it, to one person or one group of related people at a time, with no meals served on site. No urban planning by-law can prohibit that use. With one large exception: a municipality can still prohibit it through a zoning or conditional uses by-law adopted under the referendum procedure, with the number of required signatures cut by 50%.

In practice: outside your principal residence, renting to tourists is an ordinary commercial use. It is allowed where the zoning by-law allows it, and nowhere else.

Montreal: summer for your principal residence, four boroughs for the rest

Montreal used the exception. The city allows you to rent your principal residence to tourists from June 10 to September 10 only, for a maximum of 31 days within that window. Outside it, the rental is prohibited. And it is prohibited all year in Lachine, Saint-Laurent and Saint-Léonard.

You need an operating permit, renewable every year, with review fees of $350 plus taxes. The permit must be printed and posted so it is visible from the street. The city also requires a valid CITQ certificate, the owner’s authorization if you are a tenant, and provisions in the declaration of co-ownership that allow the operation.

A commercial tourist residence, the one that is not your principal residence, is an entirely different file. Montreal allows it in four boroughs only, and only on street segments named one by one: Côte-des-Neiges and Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Le Plateau-Mont-Royal on rue Saint-Denis between Sherbrooke Est and Gilford, Le Sud-Ouest, and Ville-Marie on rue Sainte-Catherine between Saint-Mathieu and Atateken. In that last sector, at least 150 metres must separate two tourist residences. You need a certificate of occupancy, at a cost of $907, plus $63 for the review of the CITQ compliance notice.

Put those fees in the same table as the welcome tax and the notary’s fees, with the closing costs calculator, before you decide whether the project stands up.

Laval: the answer is zone by zone in the Code de l’urbanisme

Laval has no stand alone Airbnb by-law comparable to Montreal’s. The answer sits in the Code de l’urbanisme (the city’s planning code), and it is precise. Schedule C defines a tourist residence as a tourist accommodation establishment where at least one unit, in a dwelling, a house or a cottage, is offered for rent to tourists for a period not exceeding 31 days. Schedule D gives it use code 5834 and classifies it in the category “Commerce à incidence (C4)”, impact commerce. An inn or tourist home, code 5833, falls under the subcategory “Commerce d’hébergement (C2d)”, accommodation commerce.

An impact commercial use is not permitted in an ordinary residential zone. Before buying in Laval to rent short term, verify the exact zone of the address and the uses permitted there, with the city’s Info-règlements tool (its online by-law lookup) or at the permits counter. I found no Laval municipal page that summarizes these rules for the general public, which makes the address by address check all the more necessary. The same reflex applies to any investment project in Laval.

In a condo, the declaration can stop everything

No provincial or municipal permit overrides your declaration of co-ownership (déclaration de copropriété). Article 1063 of the Code civil requires each co-owner to comply with the building’s by-laws and not to impair the destination of the building. Article 1056 allows the declaration to impose restrictions justified by that destination. Many residential building declarations therefore prohibit rentals of less than 30, 60 or 90 days, in so many words.

Changing the destination of the building is no formality: article 1098 requires a three quarters majority of the co-owners representing 90% of the votes. Read the declaration and the by-laws before the offer, not after, as with the rest of the condo file.

If you are a tenant rather than an owner, the government is clear: you need the owner’s consent. Without it, the owner can ask the Tribunal administratif du logement (Quebec’s rental board) to stop the rental, to award compensation, or to terminate the lease.

The fines, and who enforces them

Revenu Québec is responsible for inspections and investigations tied to enforcing the act. Platforms are targeted too: article 20.1 prohibits them from publishing an offer without a registration number and a certificate expiry date, and article 20.2 requires them to verify that the number matches the establishment and that the registration is in force.

Two recent tightenings. Since April 9, 2026, the number and the name of the establishment must appear distinctly in all advertising, including on social media, and the certificate must be posted at the main entrance. Since September 1, 2026, you must provide two proofs of principal residence at registration and at renewal, and operators who are tenants or in divided co-ownership must provide their owner’s or their syndicate’s authorization every year, on standardized forms.

The checks to run before buying for short term rental

In this order, before you lift your conditions:

1. The zone. Get the zone of the address and the list of permitted uses from the city in writing. In Laval, the use in question is 5834. In Montreal, ask for the borough and the exact street segment.
2. The declaration of co-ownership and the building by-laws. Look for any minimum rental term and any clause on commercial use.
3. The seller’s real status. The public register of tourist accommodation establishments shows the number, the status and the expiry date. An active number held by the seller does not transfer.
4. The municipal fees. Permit, certificate of occupancy, annual renewals.
5. The insurance. A standard home policy does not cover tourist use. Get a quote before the offer, with the civil liability the CITQ requires.
6. The tax side. Rental income, lodging tax, GST and QST, the effect on the principal residence exemption: that is a conversation with an accountant, not a checkbox.

And a reminder that applies to this whole text: these rules change, sometimes from one season to the next. Confirm the municipal by-law in force for your exact address, on the day you buy.

Frequently asked questions

I have my CITQ number, can the city still stop me? Yes. The number assumes the use complies with zoning, it does not authorize it. Article 5 of the act even requires a municipal document to that effect at the time of the application.

The seller already rents on a platform. Do I inherit that right? No. Article 7 prohibits transferring the registration. You must file your own application, and nothing guarantees it will be accepted if the situation has changed since theirs.

Can I rent my Plateau condo for a week in February? No, if it is your principal residence: Montreal only allows that rental from June 10 to September 10. And if your declaration of co-ownership prohibits it, the answer is no even in July.

My syndicate agreed verbally, is that enough? No. The CITQ requires the syndicate’s authorization on a form, and since September 1, 2026 it must be provided every year at renewal. A verbal understanding does not survive a change of board.

What if I rent long term instead? Beyond 31 days, you leave the Loi sur l’hébergement touristique and enter the residential lease regime, with its own rules. That is the framework described in the income plex guide.

To go further, read the signals that make you walk away and plex or condo in Montreal.

Looking at a property to rent short term in Montreal or Laval? Reach out. We check the zone, the declaration of co-ownership and the registration status before you sign anything.

Georges Matar

Residential Real Estate Broker · RE/MAX DU CARTIER INC.

Contact Georges