Burnaby Short-Term Rental Regulation: A Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Burnaby and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that Burnaby actually welcomes short-term rentals, more openly than plenty of its Metro Vancouver neighbours do. The catch is that it only welcomes them from the home you live in, not from a condo you bought purely as an investment.

That's the whole shape of the rule, and once you see it, everything else follows. Burnaby's own program has run since August 2022, capping short-term stays at 90 nights a year and requiring a business licence from the city. Since then, British Columbia layered a provincial law on top: the Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act now requires its own registration number, on top of Burnaby's licence, for every host in the province. Two governments, two applications, one home.

So let's walk through what it takes to do this properly in Burnaby in 2026: the business licence and what it costs, the documents the city wants, the taxes that stack on a booking, how the province's rules sit above the city's, and who picks up the phone when something goes wrong. Every figure below comes from the City of Burnaby's own pages or British Columbia's own statutes, read directly in July 2026. Once you know what qualifies, run the numbers on BNBCalc before you commit a property to it.

What are Short-Term Rental (Airbnb, VRBO) Regulations in Burnaby, British Columbia?

Burnaby regulates short-term rentals through its own Zoning Bylaw and Business Licence Bylaw, in effect since August 1, 2022, and defines one plainly: a unit rented out for no more than 90 days in a calendar year, which covers exactly the kind of listing you'd put on Airbnb or Vrbo. The city's short-term rental page states the rule up front. Anyone who wants to operate one has to get a business licence first.

That licence only goes to a homeowner's principal residence, defined as the dwelling where you live, pay your bills, get your mail, and hold your ID. Zoning Bylaw Section 6.29 permits short-term rentals as an accessory use in single family, two family, row housing, town house and multiple family dwellings, across the city's R, RM, C8, C9, P11 and A districts. It comes with three conditions worth knowing cold:

• You have to own the home and live in it. Renters, even with a landlord's blessing, can't get a licence at all.
• Certain uses are excluded outright. No short-term rentals in rental units, caretaker residences, boarding or lodging houses, home-based childcare facilities, group homes, private hospitals, a home occupation with on-site clients, or accessory buildings like a garage or laneway home.
• A secondary suite changes the math, though not the way it used to. As of 2025, under Bylaw 14713-25-01-14, a home with a secondary suite can still run a short-term rental in the primary unit, provided that suite itself is rented to a long-term tenant. Before that amendment, the presence of a secondary suite killed the application outright.

That last point is the thing most worth updating in your head if you looked into this a couple of years ago. Burnaby's original 2022 rule was a flat ban on any property with a suite, full stop. The 2025 change gave owners a real path: keep the suite occupied long-term, and the main house can still go on Airbnb.

Guest numbers are capped too: up to four unrelated guests, or six people from the same family, at any one time. And the 90-night annual cap has its own internal limit, since only 28 of those nights can cover your entire principal residence while you're away. The other 62-plus nights are meant for renting a room while you're home to host.

Starting a Short-Term Rental Business in Burnaby

Given that secondary-suite carve-out, you might already be picturing a bigger setup than Burnaby still allows. Unfortunately, there isn't much of a "business" here in the portfolio sense. Burnaby licenses one operator to one principal residence, no exceptions, so buying a second Burnaby property purely to run it as a nightly rental doesn't work under this framework at all.

No corporation can hold a short-term rental licence either. It has to be an individual, and that individual has to be the registered owner living in the unit. If you own with a spouse or co-owner, only one of you needs to sign the application, but you both still have to reside there.

Strata owners aren't shut out, mind you. Short-term rentals are permitted in condos and townhomes with a strata unit, as long as the strata council gives written permission first. Skip that step and the city won't issue the licence, whatever your own bylaws say.

What's realistic here is a spare-room income stream layered on top of the home you already live in, plus the occasional stretch away when your whole place goes up for a longer stay. That's it. That's the ceiling.

If your goal is a standalone rental property you don't live in, Burnaby's short-term rules don't reach that far at all. A long-term rental or the 30-plus night furnished market is the more honest fit for that kind of investment instead. Either way, run both scenarios through BNBCalc before you decide, since the spare-room numbers and a whole-unit rental in a friendlier market rarely land anywhere close to each other.

Short-Term Rental Licensing Requirement in Burnaby

Assuming your home clears every test above, the licence itself then runs through Burnaby's Licensing division at Community Safety. You'll submit a Short-Term Rental Licence Application along with your supporting documents to [email protected], or by mail to 4949 Canada Way, Burnaby BC V5G 1M2.

Once the city approves it, you'll then get an invoice rather than a bill due at submission. Do not send payment with the application itself; Burnaby processes it first and follows up. As of Bylaw 14766, effective January 1, 2026, the fee schedule sets a short-term rental licence at $278.00 for the initial year and $278.00 on every annual renewal, plus a separate $55.00 non-refundable application fee. Miss a payment and a $53.00 late fee applies; transfer the licence and it's $83.00.

The licence runs the calendar year, January through December, with no proration for whenever in the year you applied. So a licence granted in October costs the same as one granted in January, and it comes up for renewal again every January regardless. Keep in mind that applying late in the year buys you fewer months for the same money, so there's no upside to waiting.

Approval itself isn't automatic. Burnaby checks that you're the registered owner, that the address matches your principal residence proof, and that any required strata letter is on file before it issues anything. Get a document wrong and expect the application to bounce back for correction rather than an outright denial, so it pays to get the paperwork right on the first pass.

Required Documents for Burnaby Short-Term Rentals

Since that $55 application fee doesn't come back whether you're approved or not, it's worth assembling everything correctly before you submit. The application form itself is short, but the proof behind it is specific:

• One primary photo ID showing your name and mailing address: a BC driver's licence, BC Identification Card, BC Services Card, or other government-issued photo ID.
• Two secondary documents from different categories, both showing your name and current mailing address: a BC Hydro or Fortis utility statement, an insurance policy statement, or ICBC vehicle insurance. Two bills from the same category won't satisfy this; the city wants two different kinds of proof.
• A letter of permission from your strata council, if your unit is in a strata-titled building. No letter, no licence.
• A printed fire safety plan, ready to post at every entrance and exit, showing two ways out and a meeting point outside.

Once you're licensed, there's still an ongoing side to this: the Operator's Guidebook spells out what you keep maintaining after that: a written log of every stay (dates, whether you were present or away, guest counts, and copies of receipts), and an annual notification to neighbours within 30 metres of your property, strata buildings exempted since the strata corporation stands in for them. Skip the notification and you're already in violation before a single guest checks in.

Burnaby Short-Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you're able to get past all of that paperwork and start hosting, there's still tax to work out, and it stacks in layers most new hosts don't expect from a single Airbnb booking.

Tax	Rate	Who collects it
GST (federal)	5%	You, once registered, or Airbnb where it applies
PST (provincial)	8%	Airbnb, on stays of 26 nights or fewer
MRDT (Burnaby's municipal and regional district tax)	3%	Airbnb, on stays of 26 nights or fewer
Income tax	Your marginal rate	You, on your tax return

British Columbia's PST rules apply that 8% to short-term stays of 26 nights or fewer, as of July 2026. Burnaby's own municipal and regional district tax sits on top at 3%, effective since June 1, 2024, when council replaced the older 2% Hotel Room Additional Tax.

I couldn't confirm that specific 3% figure against a primary government document. The province's own interactive rate map is a JavaScript tool rather than a page I could read directly, so treat the number as sourced from local news coverage of the council vote instead, though two independent outlets agree on it.

One thing does simplify your life here: Airbnb's own help page confirms it collects and remits both the PST and the MRDT automatically on every eligible booking, so you're not the one filing those returns yourself provided all your bookings run through the platform. Stays over 26 consecutive nights fall outside this entirely, since B.C. treats those as longer-term occupancy rather than short-term accommodation.

GST is the one piece that depends on your revenue. Be aware that the federal small-supplier threshold is $30,000 CAD over any rolling 12-month period, not a calendar year, so check it continuously rather than once a year. Cross that line and you have to register for GST/HST and start charging it yourself. Below it, you're a small supplier and Airbnb's booking flow generally covers what needs collecting.

None of this touches income tax, which still applies to every dollar you earn hosting, same as any other income on your return. Burnaby's business licence and BC's registration number don't change that calculation at all.

British Columbia Wide Short-Term Rental Rules

That patchwork of city fees sits on top of a much bigger provincial framework, and it's worth seeing how the two connect. The Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act took effect across British Columbia with two big pieces: a provincial registry, live since May 1, 2025, and a principal residence requirement that's been in force since May 1, 2024.

The principal residence requirement mirrors what Burnaby already required on its own: short-term rentals are limited to the host's actual home, plus at most one secondary suite or accessory dwelling unit on the same property. Burnaby is explicitly named among the covered municipalities on the province's own principal residence page, so a Burnaby host clears one requirement by clearing the other.

Registration is a separate step from Burnaby's business licence, and you need both. The Short-Term Rental Accommodations Regulation sets the registration fee at $100 if your listing is in your principal residence, or $450 if it's in a secondary suite or accessory dwelling unit instead. Platforms register too, at $5,000 for a major provider or $600 for a smaller one, and they're required to validate every host's registration number before processing a booking.

The Act also quietly removed something hosts used to be able to lean on. Section 36 strips away "legal non-conforming use" protection specifically for short-term rentals, meaning a municipality tightening its bylaw can now end even a use that predates the change. Grandfathering isn't available here the way it is for most other zoning disputes.

Penalties at the provincial level run considerably higher than Burnaby's own fine schedule. Failing to register a short-term rental offer carries a maximum administrative penalty of $5,000 for a first violation, $7,500 for a second, and $10,000 for a third or subsequent one, all enforceable by the province's own Compliance and Enforcement Unit, separate from anything Burnaby does at the municipal level.

Does Burnaby Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Given those two layers of penalty exposure, it's worth knowing which one you're more likely to run into. Burnaby takes an active approach to enforcement at the municipal level, with fines up to $500 per infraction and escalating penalties for repeat non-compliance. Violations the city specifically calls out include operating without a valid licence, running a short-term rental somewhere that isn't your principal residence, failing to give guests required information, failing to attend within two hours of a complaint, not maintaining your records, and not posting the fire safety plan.

That $500 ceiling is genuinely modest next to what British Columbia now allows municipalities to charge. Under the Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act, local governments can ticket STR bylaw offences up to $3,000 per infraction per day, and prosecute regional district violations up to $50,000. Burnaby hasn't raised its own fine to anywhere near that ceiling as of this writing, though the province clearly built the room for it to do so.

Where Burnaby's fines stay modest, the province's own enforcement is the sharper edge. The Compliance and Enforcement Unit can investigate, demand records, issue compliance orders enforceable through BC Supreme Court, and impose administrative penalties running from $500 up to $20,000 depending on the violation and how many times it repeats. And because platforms now have to validate registration numbers before accepting a booking, an unregistered listing risks losing the booking itself, well beyond whatever fine follows after.

How to Start a Short-Term Rental Business in Burnaby

Working through all of that in order saves you both time and money, since the early checks tell you whether the later steps are worth bothering with at all.

1. Confirm your home qualifies. You have to own it, live in it as your principal residence, and it can't be a rental unit, secondary suite, caretaker residence, or one of the other excluded uses. If you have a secondary suite, make sure it's rented long-term before you apply.
2. Get strata permission first, if that applies to you. A strata letter has to accompany your application, and without it Burnaby won't issue anything.
3. Gather your proof of principal residence. One government photo ID plus two supporting documents from different categories, all showing your current mailing address.
4. Print and prepare a fire safety plan showing two exits and a meeting point, ready to post at every entrance.
5. Submit your Burnaby application to [email protected], then wait for an invoice rather than paying up front. Budget $278 for the licence plus a non-refundable $55 application fee.
6. Register separately with British Columbia's provincial registry, at $100 for a principal residence listing, and get your registration number before your first booking.
7. Set up tax collection. Confirm Airbnb or your platform is collecting PST and MRDT on your behalf, and track your trailing 12-month revenue against the $30,000 GST threshold.
8. Deliver your annual neighbour notification and start your written stay-by-stay log from day one.
9. Diarize your renewal date. Both the Burnaby licence and the provincial registration need annual renewal, and neither one carries over automatically.

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

Wherever you get stuck in that sequence, one of four offices almost certainly owns the answer.

Business licensing and short-term rental applications

Burnaby Licensing, Community Safety handles the application itself, renewals, and questions about eligibility.

• Address: 4949 Canada Way, Burnaby, BC V5G 1M2
• Phone: 604-294-7320
• Fax: 604-294-7163
• Email: [email protected]
• Hours: Monday-Wednesday and Friday, 8am-4:45pm; Thursday, 8am-8pm; closed statutory holidays

Zoning and whether your property qualifies

Burnaby's zoning and planning line is the one to call before you sign anything or apply, to confirm your address sits in a district where short-term rentals are permitted.

• Phone: 604-294-7400
• Email: [email protected]

Neighbour complaints and reporting an unlicensed rental

During business hours, Licensing takes complaints about noise, guest numbers, or a suspected unlicensed short-term rental. After hours, Burnaby Dispatch covers it instead.

• Licensing (daytime): 604-294-7320, Monday-Friday, 8am-4:45pm
• Burnaby Dispatch (after hours): 604-294-7200
• Parking Bylaw Enforcement: 604-294-7944, Monday-Friday, 7am-6pm; 604-570-3660, Saturday-Sunday, 8:30am-4:30pm; RCMP 604-646-9999 outside those windows

Provincial registration and tax questions

British Columbia's Short-Term Rental Registry, run through the Compliance and Enforcement Unit, handles the province-wide registration number every host needs on top of Burnaby's licence.

• Phone: 1-833-828-2240
• Email: [email protected]
• Hours: Monday-Friday, 7:30am-5pm, with support in 140-plus languages

For PST and MRDT questions specifically, British Columbia's Consumer Taxes line covers registration and remittance.

• Phone: 1-877-388-0440 (toll-free) or 250-410-0373
• Email: [email protected]
• Hours: Monday-Friday, 8:30am-4:30pm

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

I wasn't able to read Burnaby-specific threads directly. Automated access to Reddit is blocked in this pipeline, and its own commercial-use policy would forbid building on that data for a piece like this one even if it weren't, so what follows is an editorial read of public discourse rather than a survey of what any specific thread says.

That said, a few patterns show up consistently in how Metro Vancouver hosts and investors talk about this market. Owner-occupiers seem to view Burnaby's rules as workable, if a little more paperwork-heavy since the province added its own registration on top of the city's business licence. The 2025 secondary-suite change appears to have landed well with people who'd previously been shut out entirely for having a legal suite in their home.

Investors chasing a whole-unit, nightly-rate business, on the other hand, generally look elsewhere. Burnaby's principal-residence rule rules out exactly that model, and Metro Vancouver's neighbouring cities largely mirror it rather than offering an easier alternative. Anyone weighing Burnaby against a market where an entire unit can legally run nightly should look at the numbers on the British Columbia market before assuming Burnaby is the right fit, since a spare-room income stream and a whole-home listing elsewhere in the province are two different businesses entirely.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Burnaby in 2026?

Yes, but only from the home you live in as your principal residence. Burnaby caps short-term rentals at 90 nights per calendar year, with a maximum of 28 of those nights covering your entire home while you're away. You need a City of Burnaby business licence and, separately, a registration number from British Columbia's provincial short-term rental registry. Renters, investment condos you don't live in, and most secondary suites don't qualify.

How much does a short-term rental business licence cost in Burnaby?

As of Bylaw 14766, effective January 1, 2026, Burnaby charges $278 for the initial licence and $278 for each annual renewal, plus a separate $55 non-refundable application fee. A late payment adds $53, and transferring a licence costs $83. On top of that, British Columbia's own registration runs $100 for a principal residence listing or $450 if the listing is in a secondary suite or accessory dwelling unit.

Can you list a secondary suite as a short-term rental in Burnaby?

Not directly, but a 2025 bylaw change opened a workaround. Bylaw 14713-25-01-14 allows short-term rentals in the primary dwelling unit of a home that contains a secondary suite, as long as that suite is rented to a long-term tenant. Before 2025, any secondary suite on the property blocked the application outright. The suite itself still can't be the short-term rental; only the primary unit can, once the suite is under a long-term lease.

What taxes apply to a short-term rental in Burnaby?

Three layers typically apply: 5% federal GST, 8% provincial PST, and Burnaby's 3% municipal and regional district tax, which replaced the city's older 2% hotel tax in June 2024. Airbnb collects and remits the PST and MRDT automatically on stays of 26 nights or fewer. GST only becomes your responsibility to collect once your short-term rental revenue crosses $30,000 CAD over a rolling 12-month period. Income tax applies separately, on your full earnings.

What happens if you operate an unlicensed short-term rental in Burnaby?

You risk penalties at both levels of government. Burnaby can fine an unlicensed operator up to $500 per infraction, with escalating fines for continued non-compliance. British Columbia's Compliance and Enforcement Unit can separately impose administrative penalties starting around $5,000 for failing to register with the province, rising to $10,000 for repeat violations. Since platforms must now validate a host's registration number before accepting a booking, an unregistered listing also risks not being bookable at all.

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