- Can I short-term rent a property in BC that I do not live in?
- In most communities, no. The Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act limits short-term rentals to the host's principal residence — plus, at most, one secondary suite or accessory dwelling on the same property. The restriction applies in communities above the population threshold set by the province; smaller communities, and a list of exempt resort areas, sit outside it.
- Do I need a registration number to list a short-term rental in BC?
- Yes. BC operates a provincial short-term rental registry, and a valid registration number has to be displayed on the listing. Platforms are required to check numbers against the registry and remove listings that do not have one, so an unregistered listing does not stay up.
The principal-residence requirement
The Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act limits short-term rentals — stays under 90 consecutive days — to the host's principal residence in communities over the population threshold the province set when the Act came into force. A host may also let a secondary suite or an accessory dwelling unit on the same property, which is what makes a laneway house or a basement suite workable and an investment condo across town not.
The Act also removed the protection that legal non-conforming use gave to short-term rentals that predated a local bylaw. An operation that was grandfathered under a municipal rule does not carry that status through the provincial regime.
Where it does not apply
The requirement is not province-wide. Outside its scope are:
- Communities below the population threshold, unless they opt in
- Designated resort municipalities and certain mountain resort areas
- Some regional district electoral areas
- Accommodation types regulated separately — hotels, motels and licensed tourist accommodation
The registry, and what the platforms have to do
BC runs a provincial registry for short-term rental hosts. Registration produces a number, the number goes on the listing, and the platforms are obliged to validate it against the registry rather than take the host's word for it. A listing without a valid number is removed.
This is the part that changed enforcement. Municipal short-term rental bylaws have existed in BC for years and were enforced complaint by complaint; a platform-side check applies to every listing at once, without anyone having to notice it first.
What still sits underneath the provincial rules
The province set a floor, not a ceiling. A municipality can still require its own business licence, and many do — Vancouver's licence regime predates the provincial one and continues alongside it. Strata bylaws are separate again: a strata can prohibit short-term rentals regardless of what the province and the city allow, and that prohibition binds an owner who satisfies both.
Provincial sales tax and the municipal and regional district tax apply to short-term accommodation, generally collected by the platform on a platform booking and by the host on a direct one — which is a reason to know which of your bookings are which.
If the principal-residence rule takes a unit out of nightly letting, it is still a home. Direct PMS runs the tenancy, the deposit and the rent roll on the same registry the stay used to sit on.
Long-term rental managers →- Rules and rates in this area change often, and this page is a summary rather than advice. Check the official source before you rely on any figure in it.
Alberta is the loosest short-term rental regime of the four big provinces — no provincial licence, no principal-residence test — which puts the whole of the compliance burden on the city and the tax.
Quebec put the enforcement duty on the platforms: a listing without a valid registration number is one the platform is not allowed to publish, and the fines for publishing it anyway are aimed at the platform as much as the host.
La France superpose trois régimes : la déclaration, qui est nationale ; le plafond de nuitées, qui dépend de la commune ; et le changement d'usage, qui ne concerne que les logements qui ne sont pas votre résidence principale.
Deutschland regelt Kurzzeitvermietung nicht im Bund, sondern über das Zweckentfremdungsrecht der Länder und die Satzungen der Städte — mit dem Ergebnis, dass die Frage nie „ist das erlaubt“ lautet, sondern „in welchem Bezirk“.