Montreal Airbnb Rules in 2026: What Is Legal, What Is Banned, and What It Costs

Last updated: September 22, 2026

Key Takeaways

• Airbnb is legal in Montreal, with limits. The Montreal Airbnb rules let you rent a principal residence to tourists only between June 10 and September 10, and only if you hold a city host permit plus a provincial CITQ registration number.
• Three boroughs, Lachine, Saint-Laurent and Saint-Léonard, do not allow principal residence tourist rentals at any time of year.
• How many days you may actually book is unsettled. The city’s current guidance says a maximum of 31 days in total across that window, while by-law 25-007 sets no cumulative ceiling. Confirm in writing before you budget for a full summer.
• Year-round rental of a property you do not live in is legal only in a handful of named commercial sectors, most of them a few street segments long.
• The city host permit now costs $350 plus taxes, up from $300 taxes included.
• Provincial registration requires civil liability insurance of at least $2,000,000 per event, and since September 1, 2026 it also requires two separate proofs of principal residence.
• Renting without a valid registration number exposes an individual to a fine of $2,500 to $25,000, and a company to $5,000 to $50,000, doubled on a second offence.

Introduction

Airbnb is legal in Montreal, with limits. You may rent your principal residence to tourists from June 10 to September 10 with a municipal host permit and a CITQ registration number, in every borough except Lachine, Saint-Laurent and Saint-Léonard. Renting a property you do not live in is legal year-round only inside specific authorized commercial sectors.

The framework matters because the penalties come from two directions at once, the city by-law and the provincial Act. City council adopted by-law 25-007 on March 17, 2025, and its seasonal restriction took effect on June 10, 2025. Quebec’s Tourist Accommodation Act now carries a consolidation date of June 10, 2026, and the city refreshed its host guidance on September 11, 2026. What follows reflects both. Recheck before each season, though, because the Montreal Airbnb laws have changed more than once in recent years.

Is Airbnb Legal in Montreal?

Yes, but the legality depends on three things at once: who lives in the unit, what the calendar says, and which street the front door opens onto. Clear all three and you can move on to the permits, the registration and the insurance that actually make a listing lawful. Fail one and you are in breach, though of different rules: hosting on the wrong date breaks the city by-law, while listing without a registration number breaks the provincial Act. The penalty depends on which one you broke.

Here is the practical version. If you live in the home and you want to rent it in July, you can host once you meet every requirement below. However, if you own a condo you do not live in and you want to rent it in November, you are almost certainly not, unless the building sits in one of the narrow commercial sectors described below.

That split is the whole of the Montreal Airbnb laws in one sentence, and it is why a listing that was lawful a few years ago may not be lawful today.

Montreal Airbnb Rules in 2026: The Three Tests Every Listing Has To Pass

The Montreal Airbnb rules are easier to apply than to read. These three questions do not make a listing lawful on their own, but failing any one of them stops the project before you spend money.

1. Is it your principal residence? Owners must live on site. Tenants need a lease that allows short-term tourist use, or written authorization from the landlord.
2. Are the dates inside the window? You may host in a principal residence from June 10 to September 10 only, and each reservation must run 31 days or less.
3. Does the borough allow it? Lachine, Saint-Laurent and Saint-Léonard prohibit principal residence tourist rentals outright.

Answer yes, yes, yes and you can apply. Answer no to the first question, though, and you are no longer in the principal residence category at all. Instead you are looking at a commercial tourist home, which means a different permit, a different fee, and a much smaller map.

Condo owners have a fourth test. The declaration of co-ownership must authorize tourist homes, or the syndicate must authorize your specific use in writing. Keep in mind that a municipal permit and a provincial registration do not cancel a lease clause or a co-ownership rule that forbids short-term rental. You can hold every public approval, and your own building can still stop you.

The Summer-Only Window: June 10 to September 10

June 10 to September 10. That is the legal season for a principal residence in Montreal, and it is the single Montreal Airbnb rule that reshaped the market.

Inside the window you may host more than once, to the same guest or to different guests. You must rent to one person or to one group under a single reservation, and you cannot serve meals. Offering meals takes you outside this category, and it does not automatically qualify you as a bed and breakfast, which has its own criteria and its own borough restrictions.

Outside the window, by contrast, the city bars short-term rental of a principal residence entirely. There is no off-season permit, no exemption for festivals, and no grace period around the edges of the dates. A stay longer than 31 days falls outside this tourism definition, but length alone does not settle which residential leasing rules apply. Article 1892 of the Civil Code excludes leases of vacation resort property from the ordinary residential lease regime, so the purpose and terms of the arrangement decide the question, not the number of nights.

One Point to Settle Before You Plan a Full Summer

By-law 25-007 defines a tourist accommodation as a unit rented for a period not exceeding 31 days, and the city’s own June 2025 announcement told hosts they could rent “several times, for stays of 31 days or less” inside the window. The current how-to page words it differently, as a maximum of 31 days during this period, which reads as a cumulative seasonal cap rather than a per-stay limit. The difference between 31 bookable days and a full summer can decide whether hosting is worth it at all. Get your own case confirmed in writing before you open the calendar.

Montreal Airbnb Ban: What Exactly Is Banned

Coverage of the Montreal Airbnb rules uses the word “ban” loosely. Four distinct prohibitions actually apply, and they hit different people.

• The off-season ban. Everywhere in the city, the by-law bars principal residence rentals outside June 10 to September 10.
• The three-borough ban. Lachine, Saint-Laurent and Saint-Léonard do not permit principal residence tourist rentals at all, in any season.
• The commercial ban outside authorized sectors. Unless your address falls inside a sector the borough has specifically authorized, you cannot run a year-round rental in a property you do not live in.
• The unregistered-listing ban. Your registration number must appear in all advertising, social media included. Posting a listing without a valid permit is a breach in itself, whether or not anyone books it.

For commercial tourist homes, the borough-level bans are broader than most hosts expect. Anjou, Lachine, Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Montréal-Nord, Outremont, Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie, Saint-Laurent, Saint-Léonard and Verdun all prohibit them throughout the borough, according to the city’s borough-by-borough guidance updated on September 10, 2026. Rosemont keeps one exception for bed and breakfasts on the Plaza Saint-Hubert stretch of Rue Saint-Hubert. Verdun keeps one for bed and breakfasts authorized before June 3, 2025 that still holds a valid certificate of occupancy.

Where Year-Round Rentals Are Actually Allowed

The city publishes the authorized areas borough by borough, and the lists are short enough to print. Treat them as a starting point rather than a ruling on your address: a street appearing below does not mean every building on it qualifies, and a conditional use is a decision the borough still has to make.

Airbnb Business in Montreal: A Guide to Success

The Authorized Sectors, Borough by Borough

Borough	Authorized area for a year-round tourist home
Ville-Marie	Rue Sainte-Catherine between Saint-Mathieu and Atateken (sector M.9) only. Conditional use, borough council approval, 150 m minimum between tourist homes
Le Plateau-Mont-Royal	Main entrance facing Boulevard Saint-Laurent between Sherbrooke and Mont-Royal, or Rue Saint-Denis between Sherbrooke Est and Gilford
Le Sud-Ouest	Notre-Dame Ouest between Rose-de-Lima and Charlevoix; Rue Peel and Rue Wellington in Griffintown; Square-Gallery between des Bassins and the Lachine Canal. 150 m minimum spacing
Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce	Seven segments including Décarie between de la Savane and Côte-Saint-Luc, Queen-Mary between Victoria and Clanranald, and Côte-des-Neiges between Jean-Talon and Queen-Mary
Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension	Rue Saint-Hubert and Rue Jean-Talon Est
L’Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève	Certain areas along Rue Bord-du-Lac, Rue Monk and Rue Carré Grilli
Ahuntsic-Cartierville	Only a commercial tourist home located inside your own main residence, so not an option for a property you do not live in

Read that table as a rough map of where investment-style hosting still has room in a city of about 1.9 million people. The named sectors are short, and in Ville-Marie and Le Sud-Ouest the 150-metre separation rule can block a new approval near an existing establishment. Our post on the benefits of investing in Airbnb in Montreal predates this framework, so read it alongside the rules here rather than instead of them.

One more thing worth watching. Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada has said she wants to stop issuing commercial rental permits altogether, so the sectors below may narrow further.

What the Borough Charges to Review Your File

Fees vary by borough, and they are not trivial. Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce charges $63 to review a notice of compliance. Le Sud-Ouest charges $338 for the same review and $907 for the certificate of occupancy itself. LaSalle and Pierrefonds-Roxboro state no rule on the city page and direct hosts to the permit counter, so treat those two as unresolved until the borough answers in writing.

CITQ Registration and the City Host Permit

Two approvals, two levels of government, and they have to happen in the right order.

The Provincial CITQ Registration

The CITQ registration comes from the province. A registration number is mandatory for any accommodation offered to tourists for 31 days or less. Quebec indexed the registration fees on January 1, 2026: $54 for a principal residence establishment and $156 for a general tourist accommodation establishment. The certificate lasts 12 months.

Two requirements catch people out here, and neither appears on the city’s own checklist.

• Civil liability insurance of at least $2,000,000 per event. Section 8 of the provincial regulation requires it, you file proof of it with your application, and you have to keep it in force the whole time you operate. A standard homeowner or tenant policy usually will not cover paid tourist accommodation, so check the wording rather than assuming.
• Photographs of the property, interior and exterior, which are part of the application documents.

You must display the certificate in full view of guests at the establishment’s main entrance, and put the number in your advertising, including social media and your own website. On a transactional booking platform the offer also has to show the certificate’s expiry date, and the CITQ requires you to send that platform a copy of the certificate as an original, unmodified PDF.

The Municipal Host Permit

The host permit comes from the city. It costs $350 plus taxes, up from $300 taxes included in 2025, and by-law 25-007 gives it a validity of one year from the day the city issues it, which is a separate question from the dates you may actually host. You apply again each year.

You will need your most recent Revenu Québec notice of assessment with the tax details blacked out, photo identification, proof of ownership or a lease that permits tourist use, and either your CITQ certificate or a completed CITQ notice of compliance. If your lease names other tenants, the city wants their authorization too. For a first application you finish in person at an Accès Montréal office even though the form itself is online.

One detail the city enforces and most hosts miss: by-law 25-007 requires the municipal permit number to stay posted in the accommodation offer itself, not only the CITQ number. Your listing needs both.

What Changed on September 1, 2026

Quebec tightened the provincial registration rules this season, and the change landed after most hosts had finished their summer.

• Principal residence applications and renewals now require two separate proofs that you actually live there, where one used to be enough.
• You now have to renew landlord consent every year and syndicate consent for a condo. Previously you obtained it once, when you first registered.

The government enacted these in March 2026 and pushed them back to September 1 so they would land after the tourist season. Quebec’s stated reason was fraud: the Ministère du Tourisme reports that compliance among listings posted on both Airbnb and Vrbo reached 87.6% in 2025, against 34.5% in 2022, and these measures are meant to push it higher.

The Order That Trips People Up

If you do not yet hold a CITQ certificate, you apply to the city first, the city signs your notice of compliance, you take that signed notice to the CITQ, and then you confirm your number back to the city. Once the city issues the permit, print it and display it facing the street.

Anyone weighing whether that paperwork is worth a single summer should price it against the alternative. Professional Airbnb management in Montreal exists partly because compliance, turnovers, and pricing within a three-month window are a different job from year-round hosting.

Montreal Airbnb Fines: What It Costs To Get This Wrong

Two separate sets of penalties apply, and they answer to different rules.

Municipal Fines Under By-law 25-007

The municipal fines come from the city’s own by-law. Article 16 sets them at $1,000 for a first offence and $2,000 for a repeat offence in the case of an individual, and $2,000 rising to $4,000 for a legal person. Worth noting: the by-law text states flat amounts, while the city’s own announcement of the rules described them as applying per day. Ask the city how it counts a continuing breach before you assume a single ticket covers a whole weekend.

Provincial Fines Under the Tourist Accommodation Act

The provincial fines carry far wider ranges.

Offence under the Tourist Accommodation Act	Individual	Company or other entity
Failing to provide information or a document required by the Act (s. 26)	$500 to $5,000	$1,000 to $10,000
Contravening section 48, or a regulatory provision the government designates by regulation (s. 27)	$1,000 to $10,000	$2,000 to $20,000
Operating unregistered, filing a false declaration, or advertising a false, inaccurate or expired number (s. 28)	$2,500 to $25,000	$5,000 to $50,000
Operating after a registration is refused, suspended or cancelled (s. 29)	$5,000 to $50,000	$10,000 to $100,000
Platform breaching its own obligations (s. 29.1)	$5,000 to $50,000	$10,000 to $100,000

Section 30 doubles both the minimum and the maximum on a second offence, and triples them on any subsequent one. That applies to a repeat offence established as such, so opening a second listing does not by itself put you in the doubled band.

Notice where the biggest numbers sit. The top band covers operating after a registration has been refused, suspended or cancelled, and it covers specific platform duties under sections 20.1 and 20.2. The Act reaches the platforms directly, not only the people renting out rooms.

Three cheaper mistakes are worth naming, because they carry the $1,000 to $10,000 band for an individual and are easy to make by accident: leaving the registration number out of an advertisement, letting the required insurance lapse, and failing to display or transmit the certificate.

Taxes on a Montreal Short-Term Rental

Lodging tax, GST and QST may all touch a Montreal booking, and how much of that the platform handles depends on whether you are registered. Tax rules sit outside the Montreal Airbnb rules proper, yet they catch just as many hosts.

The tax on lodging is 3.5% of the price of the overnight stay in the Montreal tourism region. It applies to the accommodation itself, not to breakfast, parking or platform service fees. When the platform collects the full payment from the guest and is registered for the tax, the platform reports and remits it. If you and the platform split the payment, each side remits on its own share.

GST and QST depend on your own registration status, and this is where hosts get caught. If you are registered, you generally stay responsible for reporting and remitting these taxes on your taxable supplies even when the guest pays the platform. If you are not registered and the platform is, the platform collects and remits them for you. Check how your platform is set up before you configure anything yourself. The current rates are 5% GST and 9.975% QST, and they apply on a base that includes the lodging tax, so you cannot simply apply all three to the same figure. Revenu Québec measures the $30,000 small-supplier threshold on worldwide taxable supplies over a single calendar quarter or over four consecutive quarters, not on a tidy annual figure, so check it against the right period rather than against your December total.

You also have to report rental income on your federal and Quebec returns. Depending on the services you provide, it may count as property income or as business income.

The Tax Rule That Makes Non-Compliance Expensive

Here is the part that turns a bylaw problem into a tax problem. Section 67.7 of the federal Income Tax Act denies the deduction of expenses attributable to a non-compliant short-term rental. A rental is non-compliant where the activity is prohibited outright, or where the rules require a registration or licence and you did not obtain or keep it.

The denial is pro-rated: total deductible expenses, multiplied by the number of non-compliant days, divided by the days the property operated as a short-term rental. So a Montreal host who takes bookings in October, or who lists without a CITQ number, loses the deductions for those days on top of any fine. Income from an unlawful rental stays taxable; only the deductions go.

One trap in that section: it defines a short-term rental as a property rented or offered for rent for less than 90 consecutive days, which is a different threshold from Quebec’s 31-day tourism definition. The two numbers do different jobs, and a 45-day lease is not automatically non-compliant.

Since the numbers depend heavily on how you own and use the property, this is a conversation for a qualified accountant rather than a blog post. Our guide to Airbnb revenue taxation in Montreal covers the mechanics, though it predates the rules on this page.

What To Do Before You List

Work through these in order. Each step can stop the project, so stopping early is cheaper.

1. Confirm the property is your principal residence, or accept that you need a commercial tourist home authorization. The two routes have different permits, fees and deadlines.
2. Check your borough, then confirm your exact address with the borough permit counter in writing. The sector table above covers commercial tourist homes, not principal residence eligibility.
3. Read your lease or declaration of co-ownership for a short-term rental prohibition, and line up the landlord or syndicate consent you now have to renew every year. Get any co-tenants named on the lease to authorize it too.
4. Arrange civil liability insurance of at least $2,000,000 per event and keep the proof.
5. Gather two separate proofs of principal residence, plus interior and exterior photographs, for the CITQ application.
6. Apply for the city host permit when applications reopen in early 2027. Budget on the current $350 plus taxes and confirm the 2027 tariff once the city publishes it.
7. Put both numbers in your listing, the CITQ registration number and the municipal permit number. On a transactional platform you also have to show the certificate’s expiry date and send the platform your registration certificate as an unmodified PDF, updated each year after you renew.
8. Display the CITQ certificate where guests see it at the main entrance, and the city permit facing the public street.
9. Diarize September 10 as a hard stop, and settle the total-days question with the city before you build the calendar around it.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Can I rent my Montreal apartment on Airbnb year-round?

As an ordinary commercial tourist home, only if the unit sits inside a borough-authorized sector and you hold a certificate of occupancy and a CITQ number. Bed and breakfasts and stays outside the 31-day short-stay definition follow separate rules. For a principal residence, the season ends on September 10.

2. Which boroughs prohibit principal residence rentals or commercial tourist homes?

Lachine, Saint-Laurent and Saint-Léonard prohibit principal residence tourist rentals. For commercial tourist homes the list is longer and includes Anjou, Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Montréal-Nord, Outremont, Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie and Verdun, each with its own exceptions.

3. How much is the Montreal host permit?

$350 plus taxes, renewed annually. CITQ registration is separate, and Quebec indexed it to $54 for a principal residence establishment on January 1, 2026.

4. What happens if I host without registering?

Municipal and provincial penalties can both apply, depending on which offences the authorities establish. The city by-law sets $1,000 for an individual’s first offence and $2,000 for a company’s. Under the provincial Act, operating an unregistered tourist accommodation establishment carries $2,500 to $25,000 for an individual and $5,000 to $50,000 for a company. On top of that, section 67.7 of the Income Tax Act denies your expense deductions for the non-compliant days.

5. Do I need permission from my condo board?

Yes, in practice. The declaration of co-ownership must authorize tourist homes, or the syndicate must authorize your use, and the city asks for that document as part of the application. Since September 1, 2026 the provincial rules also require you to renew that consent every year rather than obtaining it once.

Explore the Best Airbnb Management Companies in Montreal

Final Thoughts

Montreal did not ban short-term rentals outright. Instead the Montreal Airbnb rules shrank them into a season and a map, then attached provincial-level fines to the edges. For hosts who live in their homes and want a strong summer, the Montreal Airbnb rules are workable and the demand in July and August is real. For investors hoping to run a year-round unit, the honest answer is that the authorized sectors are small and getting into one is a zoning project, not a listing project.

Rules at this level of detail also change, and they change at two levels at once, so verify your address with your borough and your registration status with the CITQ before you accept a booking. If tracking permits, dates and turnovers inside one short season sounds like more than you signed up for, that is precisely the problem professional management solves.

Read also about Airbnb Regulations in Ottawa.