Aurora, Canada Short-Term Rental Regulations: A 2026 Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Aurora and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that you can, and Aurora doesn't ask you to live in the house you rent out. What it does ask for is a licence, because Council passed By-law 6426-22 on June 28, 2022 and has been licensing short-term rentals ever since.

The catch is the size of what you're allowed to run. A licensed Aurora short-term rental tops out at three bedrooms and six overnight guests, one per lot, with an off-street parking space for every bedroom you rent out. For 2026 the operator licence costs $415, and before you get one a by-law officer walks through the house. Just so the scope is unmistakable: this is the Town of Aurora in York Region, Ontario, north of Toronto, and not Aurora, Colorado or Aurora, Illinois, which are separate cities with completely different rules.

So let's walk through what it actually takes to do this properly: what the by-law requires in 2026, what the licence and the inspections cost, the paperwork the town wants before it will look at your application, the tax that attaches to a stay, how hard Aurora pushes on enforcement, and who to call when something in the process stalls. Everything below comes from the town's own by-laws, fee schedules and published forms, checked in July 2026, and where the town's own documents disagree with each other I've said which one I'd plan around. Before any of it, run the property through BNBCalc so you know whether a three-bedroom cap still clears your mortgage.

What are Short-Term Rental (Airbnb, VRBO) Regulations in Aurora, Ontario?

That licence covers more ground than most owners expect, because of where the by-law draws its line. Under By-law 6426-22, a short-term rental is all or part of a dwelling unit used for temporary sleeping accommodation "for any rental period that is less than twenty-eight (28) consecutive days in exchange for payment", and the definition explicitly pulls in bed and breakfast establishments too.

Twenty-eight days, mind you, not thirty. So a 27-night booking is a licensed activity in Aurora, while a 28-night one isn't.

The by-law also runs on presumptions, which matters if you think an unusual listing structure gets you around it. Any unit marketed for stays under 28 days is presumed to be a short-term rental, and so is any unit where a guest merely has the option to book a shorter period. You can rebut that on a balance of probabilities, though the burden sits with you rather than with the town.

Two licences exist, not one. Section 3.1 requires the person renting the unit to hold a licence, and section 3.2 requires the booking platform, the "Short-Term Rental Company", to hold one as well. Then section 4.11 closes the loop: an operator may only market a unit on a platform that itself holds a valid Aurora licence in good standing. I could not confirm from any public town list which platforms currently hold one, so do check that with Bylaw Services before you commit to a channel.

Once you're licensed, the operating rules are specific enough to design around:

• One short-term rental per lot, operated within a single dwelling unit.
• Three bedrooms maximum, and only the bedrooms drawn on the floor plan you filed. Adding one later needs a licence amendment first.
• Six overnight guests maximum, at any one time.
• One off-street parking space per rented bedroom.
• No sleeping in a vehicle, tent or accessory building while the property is being used as a short-term rental.
• A sign outside identifying the unit as licensed, plus your licence number in every advertisement, listing or promotion.
• Somebody reachable who answers within two hours, whose phone number goes to every guest and to the town.
• $2 million in general liability insurance per occurrence, carrying an endorsement for short-term rentals, with 30 days' written notice to the town before that policy changes or lapses.

Zoning has less to say about any of this than you'd expect. Aurora's Zoning By-law 6000-17 doesn't use the phrase "short-term rental" at all, and its residential permitted-use tables list dwellings, second suites and home occupations rather than any form of lodging.

The by-law does define a bed and breakfast as a detached dwelling renting no more than three rooms to the travelling public, which is where that three-bedroom ceiling comes from. Since none of this is spelled out per property, the town resolves it through a permitted use letter from the Building Division, and that letter is part of your application.

Starting a Short-Term Rental Business in Aurora

So the licence does the work that zoning doesn't, which makes eligibility the next question. On that, Aurora turns out narrower than it first looks in one direction and unusually generous in another.

The narrow part: you have to own the place. Section 5.4 requires an operator applicant to submit "proof that the Applicant is an owner of the Lot on which the Short-Term Rental unit is located", so a tenant who wants to sublet their apartment on Airbnb has no route here at all. Corporations and partnerships can apply, provided they file incorporating documents and their most recent annual return.

The generous part is what's missing. Nothing in By-law 6426-22 requires the licensed unit to be your principal residence, which is the requirement that has quietly closed whole-home hosting in a growing number of Canadian municipalities. In Aurora you can own a house you don't live in, licence it, and rent the whole thing, so long as you stay inside three bedrooms and six guests.

That said, the town does put a boundary around how commercial it can look. The Licensee Code of Conduct you sign is a statutory declaration that the property "is used and held primarily for residential purposes", and it states plainly that using it for commercial purposes, "or purposes similar to that of a hotel, is prohibited".

You can still build a portfolio here, then, one address at a time. Because only one short-term rental is allowed per lot, each house needs its own $415 licence, its own inspection, its own insurance endorsement and its own police background check. Six guests is the ceiling on every one of them.

Two more things to settle before you spend anything. The same code of conduct has you declare that short-term rental "is not prohibited by any covenants, conditions, restrictions, or applicable rules that apply to the Property". A condo declaration or a subdivision agreement banning transient use therefore kills the plan, whatever the town says. And you declare that all property taxes, fees and fines owed to the town are paid as of the day you sign.

Short-Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Aurora

Assuming you own the property outright and nothing in your title documents blocks the use, you can then start on the licence, which runs through a third-party system rather than through the town counter. Applications go to the Host Compliance portal, and the town says up front that consenting to disclose your information to that administrator is not optional.

The town's own four-step outline is worth reading in the order it's written, because step three is the one people underestimate. You gather documents, apply and pay, then a by-law officer inspects the property, and only after a satisfactory inspection report does the Licensing Administrator issue anything in writing.

Fees for 2026 come from Schedule L of Fees and Charges By-law 6737-25, effective January 1, 2026:

• Initial operator licence, 1 to 3 bedrooms: $415.
• Renewal: $393.
• Re-inspection, where a property fails the first one: $125.
• Replacement licence placard: $55, and a late host renewal is another $55.
• Platform licences run separately, from $547 for a company with up to 10 Aurora properties to $12,019 for one with more than 100.

None of that comes back. Section 6.4 of the by-law says that once a licence is issued, "no fee shall be refunded by the Town in any circumstances", which is the reason to settle your eligibility and your covenants first.

Now, the term is where the town's paperwork contradicts itself, so read this part twice. The Short Term Rentals page says a licence is issued "for a period of one year". Section 7.1 of the by-law says licences "shall in each case expire on December 31 of each of year for which it was issued".

Those are not the same thing, and if the by-law text governs, a licence bought in October costs $415 for about ten weeks. Make sure you ask Bylaw Services which one they're applying before you pay in the autumn.

Renewals have their own trapdoors. You can't apply more than 30 days before expiry, and if you haven't applied within 31 days after the renewal date, the licence is deemed expired "without a right of appeal" and you start over with a fresh application.

Section 6.3 adds an administrative fee of 25% of the renewal fee to any late renewal, while Schedule L lists a flat $55 host late fee, and 25% of $393 isn't $55. Where the fee schedule and the by-law disagree, I'd budget for the higher figure and confirm the number in writing.

A licence is also personal and non-transferable. Sell the house and the buyer applies fresh; change your name, address, ownership or insurance policy and the town wants to know within 15 days.

Refusal isn't rare enough to ignore either. The Manager of Bylaw Services can refuse or revoke a licence where there are reasonable grounds to believe the business hasn't been or won't be carried on "in accordance with applicable law and with integrity and honesty". False information supplied to the town does it too, as does advertising or premises that won't comply.

Get finally refused or revoked and you're barred from applying again for a year, and so is the unit. You have 30 calendar days to appeal any of it in writing to the Town Clerk, who refers it to the Aurora Appeal Tribunal.

Required Documents for Aurora Short-Term Rentals

The surest way to stay clear of that appeal machinery is a complete application, and the documents are what decide whether you have one. The town wants all of them uploaded as PDFs, and the by-law still lets the Manager ask for more.

• Photo identification confirming you're 18 or over: driver's licence, provincial ID card or passport. Health cards are explicitly not accepted.
• Incorporation or partnership documents, if the applicant isn't a natural person, plus the last annual information return filed.
• A Vulnerable Sector Screening or Criminal Conviction Background Search from the police service where you live.
• Your HST number, where you have one.
• A certificate of insurance carrying the short-term rental endorsement and the $2 million limit.
• The Licensee Code of Conduct, signed by every owner of the property and submitted as a single document.
• An exterior site diagram showing amenities such as pools, hot tubs, sheds, pergolas and gazebos, and interior floor plans identifying kitchens, washrooms, bedrooms and living rooms. You can draw both yourself.
• A permitted use letter from the Building Division, requested by email, with a fee that may apply under the Fees and Charges By-law.
• Proof you own the lot, and the licence fee.

Two documents in the by-law don't appear on the town's public checklist, and they're worth knowing about. Section 5.3 lets the town request a York Region Health Department inspection certificate, and it also lets the town collect any outstanding fines you owe before processing anything.

Then there's the paperwork that starts after approval rather than before it. You post a copy of the licence inside the front entrance, stick the town-issued decal on the front window or door, and keep quarterly fire extinguisher inspections along with maintenance and test records for every smoke and carbon monoxide alarm. Those logs aren't decorative. The town requires them at renewal, so start the log the week you're licensed rather than the month before you renew.

Aurora Short-Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you get the licence and are able to start taking bookings, there's still tax to deal with, although the list is shorter here than most Ontario hosts expect.

Charge	Rate	Collected by
HST on accommodation	13% in Ontario	You, if you're GST/HST registered. Otherwise the platform
Municipal accommodation tax	None in Aurora, as of July 2026	n/a
Provincial lodging tax	None in Ontario	n/a

HST is the one that always applies. The CRA's platform-based accommodation rules put GST/HST on accommodation occupied for less than one month costing more than $20 a night, at 13% in Ontario. A host who is GST/HST registered charges and collects it themselves, including on platform bookings, and where the host isn't registered the accommodation platform operator has to collect and remit it. Registration is generally required once your taxable supplies pass $30,000 over 12 months, and remember that Aurora asks for your HST number on the licence application.

No municipal accommodation tax applies here. Ontario municipalities have been free to impose one since O. Reg. 435/17 came into force on December 1, 2017, and plenty of them did, but Aurora's Fees and Charges By-law carries no accommodation tax in any of its twelve schedules. That's a negative finding from the town's published documents rather than a statement by the town that it will never impose one, so treat it as accurate for 2026 and check it again if Council reopens the file.

The federal rule people keep missing is the deduction one. Section 67.7 of the Income Tax Act denies expense deductions for a "non-compliant short-term rental", meaning one operating where short-term rentals aren't permitted or one that fails to meet all registration, licensing and permit requirements. The denied share is your expenses multiplied by non-compliant days over total short-term rental days, and it applies to tax years after 2023.

Put that beside Aurora's licence and the stakes change. Skipping the licence risks a town fine, and on top of that it can cost you the mortgage interest, utilities, insurance and repair deductions that made the spreadsheet work, because there's now a local requirement to fail. Platforms hand your booking data to the CRA anyway under Part XX of the Income Tax Act, so the agency can see both halves of that.

Ontario Wide Short-Term Rental Rules

Aurora carries this much detail because nobody above it does. Ontario has no provincial short-term rental statute and no provincial registry, unlike British Columbia, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, so there's no provincial number to display and no province-wide principal residence rule to comply with.

What the province supplies instead is the licensing power. By-law 6426-22 recites its authority from the Municipal Act, 2001: section 11(3) for business licensing, section 151 to licence and govern any business carried on within the municipality "even if the business is being carried on from a location outside the municipality", and section 446 to do work at an owner's expense and add the cost to the tax roll. Section 429 is what makes contraventions continuing offences, day by day.

The 28-day line has a provincial explanation too, and it's worth understanding rather than memorising. Aurora's FAQ says a rental longer than 28 consecutive days becomes a tenancy under the Residential Tenancies Act. The statute is a little more careful: section 5(a) of the RTA exempts living accommodation "intended to be provided to the travelling or vacationing public", which is why a genuine holiday booking sits outside tenancy law while a long stay by an ordinary occupant does not.

Be aware that stretching a listing to 28-night minimums to dodge the licence can hand your guest tenancy rights instead, and that trade is a much bigger deal than the $415.

Two provincial codes then reach inside the house. The Ontario Fire Code, O. Reg. 213/07 under the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, governs your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and the Building Code, O. Reg. 332/12, governs whether those bedrooms were lawfully built. Aurora's demerit table treats a contravention of either as the most serious thing you can do, which is where enforcement starts to hurt.

Does Aurora Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Yes, and the demerit points do more of the work here than the fines do. Aurora enforces on three tracks at once: a mandatory inspection before you're licensed, a points system that can take the licence away without any court appearance, and Provincial Offences Act charges on top if it comes to that.

Start with the points. Schedule A of By-law 6426-22 assigns demerits on an administrative penalty, a Part I or Part III ticket, a conviction, a confirmed order, or a contravention documented by Central York Fire Services. Everyone starts at zero, points reset on the anniversary of your first approval, and once you pass 14 points the Manager must issue a decision to revoke the licence or vary its conditions.

Look at the top of that table and you'll see the whole design. A Fire Code contravention is worth 15 points on its own, as is operating while suspended and a Building Code contravention. One bad smoke alarm finding, in other words, can end the licence in a single step. Below that, an unauthorised bedroom or an extra guest costs 7, failing to post your licence number in advertising costs 5, ignoring a complaint past the two-hour window costs 5, and a noise or property standards contravention costs 3.

One caution before you rely on any of that. The town also publishes a Demerit Point System handout whose numbers differ from Schedule A of the by-law: it scores operating while suspended and a Building Code contravention at 7 rather than 15, an extra guest at 5 rather than 7, and noise at 5 rather than 3. Schedule A is the instrument Council actually passed, so that's the version I'd plan around, and it's worth asking Bylaw Services in writing which one their officers are scoring against.

The fines sit behind the points and they're not symbolic. Section 16.5 exposes a convicted person to a fine of not less than $500 and not more than $100,000, and for a continuing offence, $500 to $10,000 for each day the contravention runs, with the daily total not capped at $100,000. Section 16.6 then adds a special fine equal to the economic advantage or gain obtained from the contravention, and that one can exceed $100,000 by design.

Rent an unlicensed house all summer and the town can work out what you took from your own booking history, then ask the court for that amount as well.

Complaints reach the town through the same third-party system that processes applications. Aurora publishes a 24-hour complaint line at (365) 544-3496 plus an online form, both run by Host Compliance on the town's behalf, and staff pick up the details from there.

Officers can enter and inspect at any reasonable time, require documents, and post a notice on the premises stating that the property has no valid licence, which stays up until the Manager says otherwise. Anyone marketing an unlicensed unit has 24 hours to take the listing down once the town asks.

One clause does a lot of quiet damage. Section 18.1 presumes the licence holder caused or permitted any contravention that happens at the unit. You can rebut that, though the starting position is that your guest's party is your problem.

Aurora's administrative penalty system currently names Clean Communities, Property Standards and Fouling of Highways as its non-parking by-laws, so short-term rental matters presently run through demerits and Provincial Offences Act charges instead. What I could not find is any published count of licences issued, charges laid or licences revoked in Aurora, so treat the enforcement posture as designed rather than as measured.

How to Start a Short-Term Rental Business in Aurora

Knowing how the points work changes the order you should do things in, because two of the steps below decide whether the rest is worth paying for.

1. Confirm you own the lot and that nothing private blocks the use. Read the condo declaration, subdivision agreement or restrictive covenants first. Tenants have no path to a licence at all.
2. Email the Building Division for a permitted use letter at [email protected], and ask at the same time whether every bedroom you plan to rent was built or permitted lawfully. An unpermitted basement bedroom is a Building Code problem worth 15 demerit points later.
3. Design the operation to the caps before you furnish anything. Three bedrooms, six guests, one off-street parking space per rented bedroom, one short-term rental on the lot.
4. Get the insurance endorsement. A standard homeowner policy won't do it; you need $2 million per occurrence with a short-term rental endorsement, and you'll be notifying the town 30 days before it changes.
5. Book the police background check early. Vulnerable Sector Screening turnaround is outside the town's control and it's the item most likely to hold up an application.
6. Draw the site diagram and floor plans, marking the exact bedrooms you intend to rent. The licence attaches to those rooms and adding one later needs an amendment.
7. Apply and pay through the Host Compliance portal. Budget $415 for 2026, and don't forget the fee is non-refundable even if the inspection goes badly.
8. Pass the by-law inspection, then post the licence inside the front entrance and the decal on the front window or door. A failed first inspection costs $125 to redo.
9. Set up the day-one habits: licence number in every listing, a person who answers within two hours, and the quarterly fire extinguisher, smoke and CO alarm log that renewal depends on.
10. Diarise the renewal window. You can apply no earlier than 30 days before expiry, and 31 days past the renewal date the licence is gone with no appeal.

Who to Contact in Aurora about Short-Term Rental Regulations and Zoning?

Whichever of those steps stalls, the town splits this across several desks, and knowing which one owns your question saves a round of transfers.

Licensing, inspections and enforcement

Bylaw Services administers the short-term rental program, from application through inspection to demerit points.

• Address: 229 Industrial Parkway North, Aurora, ON L4G 6J1
• Phone: 905-727-3123
• Email: [email protected]
• Complaints: the Host Compliance online form or the 24-hour line at (365) 544-3496

Permitted use letters and building permits

The Building Division issues the permitted use letter your application needs, and answers whether a room counts as a legal bedroom.

• Email: [email protected]
• General enquiries: through Access Aurora, 905-727-1375

Zoning questions

Planning and Development Services handles the zoning side, including what By-law 6000-17 permits at your specific address.

• Phone: 905-726-4700
• Email: [email protected]

General service, payments and hours

Access Aurora is the town's customer service division and the switchboard for everything above.

• Address: Aurora Town Hall, 100 John West Way, Box 1000, Aurora, ON L4G 6J1
• Phone: 905-727-1375, or the 24-hour information line at 905-727-3123
• Email: [email protected]
• Hours: Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Appeals

Appeals of a refusal, suspension or revocation go in writing to the Town Clerk within 30 calendar days, and from there to the Aurora Appeal Tribunal.

• Phone: 905-726-4771
• Email: [email protected]

Fire safety

Central York Fire Services covers Aurora and Newmarket, enforces the Ontario Fire Code, and is the service whose documented contraventions carry the heaviest demerit weight.

• Headquarters: 300 Earl Stewart Drive, Aurora, ON L4G 7Z5
• Fire Prevention office: 984 Gorham Street, Newmarket, ON L3Y 1L8
• Phone: 905-895-9222
• Email: [email protected]

What Do Airbnb Hosts in Aurora on Reddit and Bigger Pockets Think about Local Regulations?

Fire safety carrying the heaviest penalty in this by-law says plenty about who Council was listening to, and it wasn't investors.

A word on sourcing before anything else. Reddit blocks automated access and its platform terms don't permit the commercial use a proper survey would need, so nothing below quotes a thread, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. What I can read is the by-law Council actually passed, and a regulation that specific is a transcript of the complaints that produced it.

Read the demerit table as a list of grievances and a pattern shows up: noise, garbage, weeds and long grass, property standards, extra guests, and nobody answering the phone. My read is that the two-hour response rule, the parking space per bedroom and the decal on the front window all came from neighbours rather than from planners, since those are the things somebody notices from their own driveway. Council doesn't publish the complaint file, though, so take that as inference rather than fact.

Owners tend to raise the mirror image of that list. A cap of three bedrooms and six guests rules out the large-group bookings that make weekend rates work in cottage markets, and one licence per lot rules out density. Then there's the annual round of licence, inspection, background check and insurance endorsement, which is real overhead against a modest nightly rate. Aurora also reads to me as a commuter town rather than a tourist destination, so I'd expect the bookings to be family visits, contractors and weekend events rather than vacations.

Still, the trade Aurora offers is a real one, and worth naming plainly. You give up scale and you keep the thing hosts elsewhere have been losing: the right to rent a whole house you don't live in. Compare that against the Canada market before you decide the licence is expensive, then run your specific address through BNBCalc with $415 a year, an insurance endorsement and a six-guest ceiling already in the model.

That trade shows up well beyond this one town. When a council writes rules about who answers the phone and where the cars go, it's telling you it means to keep short-term rentals in the neighbourhood rather than push them out, and those are usually the places worth building something inside.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you need a licence to run an Airbnb in Aurora, Ontario?

Yes. Aurora requires a short-term rental licence for any rental of all or part of a dwelling for less than 28 consecutive days, under By-law 6426-22, and bed and breakfasts are included in that definition. The operator licence costs $415 in 2026, plus a by-law inspection before approval. Booking platforms need their own Aurora licence, and hosts may only advertise on platforms that hold one.

How many guests can an Aurora short-term rental take?

Six overnight guests at any one time, across a maximum of three bedrooms, and only the bedrooms identified on the floor plan filed with the licence application. Each rented bedroom needs one off-street parking space. No sleeping is permitted in a vehicle, tent or accessory building. Only one short-term rental is allowed per lot, operated within a single dwelling unit.

Does Aurora, Ontario charge a municipal accommodation tax on short-term rentals?

No. As of July 2026, no accommodation tax appears anywhere in the Town of Aurora's Fees and Charges By-law, even though Ontario municipalities have been able to impose one since O. Reg. 435/17 took effect in December 2017. The tax that does apply is HST at 13%, collected by the host if registered for GST/HST, and otherwise by the booking platform.

What happens if you rent without an Aurora short-term rental licence?

By-law 6426-22 exposes a convicted person to a fine of not less than $500 and not more than $100,000, plus $500 to $10,000 for each day a continuing offence runs, and a special fine equal to the economic gain from the contravention that can exceed $100,000. Federal tax law adds to it: section 67.7 of the Income Tax Act denies expense deductions for a non-compliant short-term rental.

Do you have to live in the property to get an Aurora short-term rental licence?

No. By-law 6426-22 has no principal residence requirement, so a whole-home rental of a property you don't occupy is permitted. What is required is ownership: applicants must prove they own the lot, which rules out tenants. Corporations and partnerships may apply, though the signed Licensee Code of Conduct declares the property is held primarily for residential purposes and not as something similar to a hotel.

Last verified: July 2026. Every ordinance, tax rate, state law, and contact detail in this guide links to or comes from its official source.