regulation. Cities around the world are facing similar issues and are in various stages of researching and regulating short-term rentals. This report explores short-term rentals in Toronto, describes the regulatory and tax context, outlines a number of key municipal issues related to short-term rentals and outlines a plan to conduct research and consultation to guide the City's approach to short-term rentals. 

Understanding Short-term Rentals 

The term "short-term renter has been used to describe a wide range of rentals that occur over a short period that fall outside of hotel, motel, bed and breakfast, renting and subletting. Short-term rentals occur in any form of dwelling, including detached house, semi-detached house, townhouses, second suites. condominiums and rental apartment buildings. Short-term rentals are operated by both property owners and tenants. 

In Toronto, residents and property owners are using a number of online platforms to facilitate short-term rentals, including Airbnb, the Homeaway, VRBO, Flip Key, Roomorama, Craiglist and kip". Some short-term rentals are listed on multiple platforms.

There are two primary ways to distinguish short-term rentals: i) whether or not the rental occurs in the primary residence of the operator, and ii) whether or not the operator is present during the rental. 

Primary residence is not defined in provincial or municipal legislation; the lack of shared delinition can make discussions regarding short-term term rentals confusing. Each category of short-term rentals has unique benefits and risks from a regulatory perspective. The following provides further details regarding these categories: 

• Primary residence and operator present A property owner or renter rents one or more bedrooms in their home.
  
  
  • Ex: a property owner rents a bedroom in her home that she does not use for a few weeks each year. 
    
    
• Primary residence and operator not present A property owner or renter rents an entire unit while away for a short pond.
  
  
  • Ex: a renter rents her entire apartment for a few weeks white away on vacation. 
    
    
• • Non-primary residence and the operator not present: A person purchases a property and rents it out for short periods.
  
  
  • Ex: A person purchases three condominiums and rents them out most weekends to generate income. 

Short-term rentals market In Toronto by number

It has been difficult for staff to determine the total number of short-term rental listings in Toronto as they occur on a number of online platforms and some listings may be listed on more than one site. Airbnb has shared that there were 12,260 Airbnb listings online as of September 1, 2016. An initial scan of other websites found, as of October 3 2016. approximately 700 on the Flipkey website, 640 on the VRBO website, 480 listings on