Airbnb insurance requirements in the GTA depend entirely on which city your property sits in. Mississauga wants $2,000,000 in commercial general liability coverage with the City named as an additional insured. Oakville wants the policy itself to state that a short-term rental operates on the property. Toronto, the region's largest short-term rental market, requires no insurance at all.
Most writing about Airbnb insurance for hosts starts with products and providers. This article stays inside the bylaws: what each municipality's short-term rental licensing rules actually require before you can be licensed, city by city, drawn from the bylaw texts. Confirm the specifics with your municipality and your insurance provider before acting on any of it.
Airbnb Insurance Requirements at a Glance
Here is the whole map in one table. Amounts are the liability minimums set by each city's short-term rental licensing bylaw. Details and conditions follow below.
| City | Insurance required | Key condition |
|---|---|---|
| Toronto | None | Chapter 547 never mentions insurance |
| Mississauga | $2,000,000 CGL | City included as additional insured |
| Brampton | $2,000,000 | Certificate of Insurance in the prescribed form |
| Vaughan | $2,000,000 | Lapsed policy while operating: grounds for summary suspension |
| Oakville | $2,000,000 per occurrence | Policy must identify the short-term accommodation use |
| Burlington | $2,000,000 | Operator must notify the City if the policy is cancelled |
| Milton | $2,000,000 | Town included as additional insured |
| Oshawa | $2,000,000 | Policy must explicitly cover short-term rental use |
| Hamilton | $1,000,000 per occurrence | Host Liability or Commercial General Liability accepted |
| Markham, Halton Hills, Scugog | Not applicable | Short-term rentals prohibited outright |
| Ajax, Pickering, Richmond Hill, Whitby | None | No STR bylaw currently; Richmond Hill and Whitby studying one |
| Caledon | Confirm with Town | Licensing phasing in from spring 2026; insurance detail not yet documented |
| Newmarket | Confirm with Town | Licensing exists; insurance specifics not documented in our sources |
Toronto: The Bylaw Requires No Insurance at All
This is the surprise of the article. Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 547, the bylaw that governs short-term rentals in the city, contains no insurance requirement. We verified the full bylaw text: zero mentions of insurance. Registration is required. Principal residence is required. Insurance is not.
That does not make hosting uninsured in Toronto a neutral act. It means the City has chosen not to regulate it, and your own policy's expectations become the whole story, covered in the practical guidance section below. For the complete Toronto picture, see our companion guide to Toronto Airbnb insurance in 2026.
The $2,000,000 Cities: Same Number, Seven Different Conditions
Seven municipalities set the same headline figure, $2,000,000 in liability coverage, and then each attaches its own condition. The conditions matter as much as the number, because they decide what paperwork your insurance provider must produce and what happens when a policy lapses. These are the Airbnb insurance requirements with real teeth.
Mississauga: $2,000,000 CGL, City as Additional Insured
Mississauga's short-term rental licensing bylaw requires commercial general liability insurance of at least $2,000,000, and the City must be included on the policy as an additional insured. That second condition means a personal policy at the right limit is not enough on its own: the City of Mississauga itself has to appear on the policy.
Brampton: $2,000,000, Certificate in the Prescribed Form
Brampton requires $2,000,000 in liability insurance, evidenced by a Certificate of Insurance in the prescribed form. The prescribed form language matters. The city decides what the certificate looks like, so ask your insurance provider for Brampton's specific certificate rather than a generic confirmation letter.
Vaughan: $2,000,000, and a Lapse Can End the Licence
Vaughan's short-term rental licensing bylaw requires an applicant to provide:
"proof, satisfactory to the Chief Licensing Officer, of valid general liability commercial insurance, or any other suitable insurance acceptable to the Chief Licensing Officer, in the amount of at least $2,000,000." City of Vaughan short-term rental licensing bylaw
Vaughan is also the city with the sharpest enforcement wording tied directly to insurance. A licensee whose insurance has expired while they continue to operate faces grounds for summary suspension of the licence. The coverage is not a box ticked at application time, it is a condition of staying licensed. Let the policy lapse mid-year while you keep hosting and the licence itself is on the line.
Oakville: $2,000,000, and the Policy Must Name the Rental Use
Town of Oakville By-law 2018-045 requires:
"proof of insurance which includes a liability limit of no less than two million dollars ($2,000,000.00) per occurrence for property damage and bodily injury, and identifies that a STA is being operated on the property." Town of Oakville By-law 2018-045
Read that last clause again. The policy must identify that a short-term accommodation is being operated on the property, which rules out quietly relying on a standard homeowner policy that never mentions the rental. Oakville reaches into the policy wording itself, and Oshawa takes a similar approach below. One distinction worth a sentence: the same bylaw also requires $5,000,000 in coverage from short-term accommodation companies, meaning the booking platforms, not individual hosts.
Burlington: $2,000,000, and the City Hears About Cancellations
Burlington requires $2,000,000 in liability insurance, and the operator must notify the City if the policy is cancelled. The notification duty is easy to miss: a cancellation is not a private matter between you and your provider, it is something Burlington expects to be told about.
Milton: $2,000,000, Town as Additional Insured
Milton requires $2,000,000 in liability insurance with the Town of Milton included as an additional insured, the same structure as Mississauga's requirement.
Oshawa: $2,000,000, and the Policy Must Cover the STR Use
Oshawa requires $2,000,000 in liability insurance, and the policy must explicitly cover short-term rental use. Like Oakville, Oshawa looks past the limit and into the wording: coverage that is silent about the rental activity does not satisfy the bylaw.
Hamilton: The Lowest Stated Minimum at $1,000,000
Hamilton, at the western edge of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, sets the lowest stated minimum in this guide: at least $1,000,000 in Host Liability or Commercial General Liability coverage per occurrence. The bylaw names either form of coverage as acceptable, which gives Hamilton hosts a little more room than the cities that specify commercial general liability alone. It is still a licensing condition, so proof will be part of the application.
Markham, Halton Hills, Scugog: Prohibited, So No Insurance Question
Three municipalities prohibit short-term rentals outright, so their bylaws impose no Airbnb insurance requirements for the simple reason that there is no lawful short-term rental to insure. In Markham, short-term rentals are prohibited. Halton Hills prohibits them as well. Scugog completes the list with its own prohibition. In these three, stays of 28 nights or longer generally fall outside the short-term rental definition, which is why mid-term rentals are the usual compliant path for an investment property.
Ajax, Pickering, Richmond Hill, Whitby: No Bylaw, No Municipal Requirement
Four municipalities currently have no short-term rental bylaw at all, so there is no municipal insurance requirement to meet. That is not the same as no rules ever: Richmond Hill and Whitby are actively studying short-term rental regulation, so this picture can change. If you host in either, keep an eye on council agendas rather than assuming the quiet lasts.
No bylaw also does not mean no exposure. Your own policy's view of short-term rental use applies everywhere, which is the subject of the practical guidance below.
Caledon and Newmarket: Confirm With the Town
Caledon is phasing in short-term rental licensing, with the licensing phase planned for spring 2026 onward and a cap of 300 licences across the town. Our maintained bylaw summaries do not yet document an insurance requirement for the program, so confirm directly with the Town as the rollout details land.
Newmarket has short-term rental licensing on the books, but our sources do not document the insurance specifics of its program. Confirm with the Town before relying on any number you read elsewhere.
Practical Guidance: Your Own Policy Has Its Own Rules
Everything above is bylaw content. This section is practical guidance, and it applies in every city on this list, including the ones that ask for nothing.
Standard homeowner policies commonly exclude commercial activity, and short-term renting is usually treated as commercial. That means an undisclosed Airbnb can leave you with a denied claim after a loss, even in a city like Toronto where the bylaw is silent. The municipal requirement is a floor set by the licensing office. Your policy is a separate contract with its own conditions, and much of what is written about Airbnb insurance in Canada skips that distinction entirely.
We are not going to recommend a product or a provider here, and the bylaws do not either. The general move is simple: talk to your insurance provider about your short-term rental use, describe exactly what you are doing, and get their position in writing. In Oakville and Oshawa that conversation is not optional anyway, because the bylaw requires the policy to reflect the rental use.
What to Do
- Find your city in the table and read the condition, not just the number. Additional insured wording, prescribed certificates, and policy disclosure conditions are what licence applications actually get held up on.
- Ask your provider for the exact document your city names. In Mississauga and Milton that means the municipality added as an additional insured. In Brampton it means the Certificate of Insurance in the city's prescribed form.
- In Vaughan, treat the policy renewal date like the licence renewal date. An expired policy while you keep operating is grounds for summary suspension of the licence.
- In Oakville and Oshawa, confirm the policy wording names the rental use. Silence in the policy fails the bylaw in both municipalities, no matter how high the limit is.
- Where there is no licensing by-law, confirm the zoning question too. Whitby confirmed in August 2026 that short term rentals are not permitted there at all, and Pickering restricts them to your principal residence, while Caledon's licensing program rolls out through 2026.
- Have someone track this for you. At Nurture, we manage Airbnb properties across Toronto and the GTA and keep each city's licensing requirements, insurance conditions included, mapped against the current bylaw texts before a property is listed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Toronto require insurance for Airbnb?
No. Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 547, the short-term rental bylaw, contains no insurance requirement. We verified the full bylaw text and insurance is not mentioned once. Toronto requires registration and principal residence, but it never asks operators for proof of insurance. That is the legal minimum, not a judgment on whether hosting uninsured is wise, and your own policy may still expect disclosure of the rental use.
How much liability insurance does Mississauga require for Airbnb?
At least $2,000,000 in commercial general liability insurance, and the City of Mississauga must be included on the policy as an additional insured. Both conditions come from the city's short-term rental licensing bylaw, so a bare personal policy at the right limit is not enough on its own.
Does my home insurance cover Airbnb in Canada?
Often not. Standard homeowner policies commonly exclude commercial activity, and short-term renting is usually treated as commercial. An undisclosed Airbnb can mean a denied claim after a loss, even in a city with no municipal insurance requirement. This is a general point, not advice about any product: talk to your insurance provider about your short-term rental use and get their position in writing.
Which GTA city has the highest insurance requirement for hosts?
It is a tie at $2,000,000 among Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan, Oakville, Burlington, Milton, and Oshawa. Oakville also requires $5,000,000 in coverage from short-term accommodation companies, but that applies to booking platforms, not to individual hosts.
What happens in Vaughan if my insurance lapses?
Vaughan's short-term rental licensing bylaw makes an expired insurance policy, while the licensee continues to operate, grounds for summary suspension of the licence. In plain terms, letting the policy lapse while you keep hosting can cost you the licence itself, not just a fine. Treat the policy renewal date with the same care as the licence renewal date.
Does Oakville require me to tell my insurer about my Airbnb?
Effectively yes. Town of Oakville By-law 2018-045 requires proof of insurance that identifies that a short-term accommodation is being operated on the property. A policy that never mentions the rental use does not satisfy the bylaw, so quietly relying on a standard homeowner policy will not get you licensed in Oakville.
Do Ajax, Pickering, Richmond Hill, or Whitby require Airbnb insurance?
Not at the municipal level. None of the four currently has a short-term rental bylaw, so there is no municipal insurance requirement to meet. Richmond Hill and Whitby are actively studying regulation, so this can change. Your own insurer's expectations still apply regardless of what the municipality asks for.
Does Hamilton require commercial insurance for short-term rentals?
Hamilton requires a minimum of $1,000,000 in Host Liability or Commercial General Liability coverage per occurrence, the lowest stated minimum among the regulated municipalities in this guide. The bylaw names either form of coverage as acceptable.
Is insurance required for an Airbnb in Caledon or Newmarket?
Confirm directly with the town in both cases. Caledon is phasing in short-term rental licensing, with the licensing phase planned for spring 2026 onward and a cap of 300 licences across the town, and our sources do not yet document an insurance requirement for the program. Newmarket has licensing, but our sources do not document its insurance specifics.
What does additional insured mean in Mississauga and Milton?
Both bylaws require the municipality to be included on your liability policy as an additional insured, which means the city or town itself is named on the policy. It is a standard request your insurance provider can add, usually documented on the certificate of insurance. Ask for that wording before you apply, since the licence application will expect proof of it.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or insurance advice. Bylaws change, and municipalities revise their licensing programs frequently. Our source summaries are maintained against the bylaw texts, but requirements change, so always verify current rules directly with the municipality, and discuss your own coverage with your insurance provider, before making hosting decisions.
Not Sure What Your City Requires?
Send us the address. We check the current short-term rental bylaw for your municipality, insurance conditions included, before you commit a dollar. We manage Airbnb properties across Toronto and the GTA.
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