Can You Transfer a Toronto Airbnb Registration? What Happens When You Move

A Registration Is Not Something You Own

Two short clauses in Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 547 settle most of this before you get to any of the moving scenarios:

"B. No person shall enjoy a right in the continuance of a licence or registration and at all times the value of a licence or registration shall be the property of the City. C. No licence or registration issued under this chapter shall be sold or transferred." Toronto Municipal Code § 547-2.1.B and C

Clause C is the flat prohibition. Clause B is the one worth reading twice, because it explains why. The bylaw does not describe a registration as a permission you hold and may pass along. It describes the value of it as City property. You get the use of it while you qualify, and that is the whole of what you get.

Selling: It Does Not Come With the House

Sellers ask this constantly, usually because they think a registered property lists for more. You cannot transfer a Toronto Airbnb registration to a buyer as part of the deal. § 547-2.1.C bars the sale or transfer outright, and § 547-2.1.B removes the underlying premise that there is any value there belonging to you to sell.

Two things follow for anyone listing a Toronto home that has been hosted:

• Do not price a registration into the sale. There is nothing being conveyed, so there is nothing being paid for.
• Do not market the home as "Airbnb registered and transferable." That claim is wrong under § 547-2.1.C and § 547-2.1.E, and a buyer who relies on it will find out at the application stage. Say instead that the home was used as a short-term rental by a registered operator, and that any buyer applies in their own name.

Moving: The Registration Stays With the Address

The second no is the address rule. Owners assume that because they are staying the same person, they can transfer a Toronto Airbnb registration across town with them. Even if you keep the same name, the same phone number, and the same intention to host, the registration does not travel with you:

"A registration issued under this chapter is valid only for the address or dwelling unit to which it pertains and no person registered under this chapter shall advertise, promote, or carry on business at any address or dwelling unit other than that endorsed on their registration." Toronto Municipal Code § 547-2.1.E

Notice that the clause names advertising and promoting, not just renting. Putting the new address up on a platform while pointing at the old registration number is squarely inside what the clause prohibits. The new home needs its own application and its own registration.

Handing It to a Spouse or a Buyer

The third no is about people. § 547-2.1.C already prohibits the transfer. Chapter 547 then controls who is eligible to hold a registration in the first place, and two of those grounds matter here:

"A person shall not be entitled to apply for or hold a registration and Municipal Licensing and Standards shall refuse to issue or renew a registration where: ... B. They hold another registration under this chapter; ... D. They are applying for a registration related to a dwelling unit in respect of which another operator holds a registration, unless the applicant has held a registration related to the dwelling unit for the longest continuous period." Toronto Municipal Code § 547-4.B and D

Clause B is one registration per person. Clause D is one registration per unit. Together they explain why a handover is not a paperwork exercise: your spouse or your buyer has to qualify in their own right, on a property that is their own principal residence, and they cannot do it while another operator still holds a live registration on that same unit.

The Timing Squeeze When You Move

This is where owners actually get hurt, and it is not the transfer rule that does it. It is the principal residence test:

"A. For the purposes of this chapter, an operator shall be deemed to have only one principal residence at any time. B. No operator shall rent or advertise a property for short-term rental unless it is the operator's principal residence at that time." Toronto Municipal Code § 547-4.2.A and B

Read the words "at that time" in clause B. Hosting is permitted while the property is your principal residence, not while your registration certificate has time left on it. Once the old place stops being where you ordinarily reside, hosting there stops too, regardless of the expiry date printed on the registration.

Now stack the constraints. You may only have one principal residence at any time under § 547-4.2.A. You cannot hold two registrations at once under § 547-4.B. And the City can ask you to prove principal residence on ten days notice:

"Every operator shall, within 10 days of being requested to do so by Municipal Licensing and Standards, provide evidence that is satisfactory to the Executive Director that the property the operator has registered for use as a short-term rental is the operator's principal residence." Toronto Municipal Code § 547-4.2.C

So the new home cannot be evidenced as your principal residence until it genuinely is one, and the old home stops being hostable before that happens. There is no version of this where the two overlap cleanly.

Practical guidance, not bylaw text: Chapter 547 does not set out a step by step moving procedure, so the sequence below is our own operational advice rather than a rule you can point to in the code. Confirm the timing for your own situation with Municipal Licensing and Standards before you rely on it.

• Stop taking new bookings at the old property before the date it stops being your principal residence, and let existing bookings run out rather than accepting reservations you may have to cancel.
• Take the old listing down rather than pausing it, because § 547-2.1.E and § 547-4.2.B both name advertising, not only renting.
• Report the change to the City within six days, covered in the next section.
• Move in, establish the new address as where you ordinarily reside, and gather the identification and documents that show it.
• Apply for the new address, and expect a gap in hosting income between the two homes. Budget for the gap rather than assuming a handover.

Six Days to Report the Change

The reporting duty is easy to miss in the middle of a move, and a move changes precisely the information the City holds on file:

"If any information that a licensee or registrant provided to Municipal Licensing and Standards as part of their application for a licence, registration, or its renewal changes, that person shall notify Municipal Licensing and Standards of such change within six days in a manner prescribed by the Executive Director." Toronto Municipal Code § 547-2.3.A

Six days is short. Your address, your contact details, and the principal residence status behind the whole registration all change when you move, so put the notification on the moving checklist next to the utilities. The clause says the manner is prescribed by the Executive Director, so ask the City how they want to receive it rather than assuming an email is enough.

Buying a Home That Was Hosted

If you are on the other side of the deal, the seller's registration gives you nothing, and the property's registration history can actively work against you:

"In addition to the grounds set out in Subsection A, a person shall not be entitled to apply for or hold a registration, and Municipal Licensing and Standards shall refuse to issue or renew a registration where, in the year prior to the date of the application: ... (3) A registration related to the dwelling unit for which the person seeks a registration was cancelled or revoked, unless the person can demonstrate to the satisfaction of Municipal Licensing and Standards that the dwelling unit has since been sold." Toronto Municipal Code § 547-2.12.D(3)

The block attaches to the dwelling unit, so a clean personal record does not clear it. A genuine sale is the written exception, and buying the home is exactly the fact that engages it, but the clause puts the burden on you to demonstrate the sale to the City's satisfaction. Keep your closing documents accessible instead of assuming the City already knows.

What to Do

• 1
  Do not price a registration into a sale. § 547-2.1.B says the value of a registration is the property of the City and § 547-2.1.C bars the sale or transfer. There is no asset there to sell, and describing one to a buyer misleads them.
• 2
  Plan for a gap between homes. One principal residence at a time under § 547-4.2.A, one registration per person under § 547-4.B, and hosting only while the property is your residence "at that time" under § 547-4.2.B. Those three do not permit an overlap, so budget for the downtime.
• 3
  Report the change within six days. § 547-2.3.A gives you six days to notify Municipal Licensing and Standards when your application information changes, and ask them how they want it delivered.
• 4
  Register the new address once you genuinely live there. § 547-4.2.C can require proof of principal residence on ten days notice, so apply when the evidence is real rather than aspirational.
• 5
  Check a target property's registration history before you buy. § 547-2.12.D(3) can refuse you for a year over something a previous operator did on that unit.
• 6
  Keep proof of the sale if you are relying on the exception. The clause says you must demonstrate the sale to the satisfaction of Municipal Licensing and Standards, so the paperwork is yours to produce.
• 7
  Get the sequence mapped before you list either home. At Nurture, we check a Toronto or GTA property against the exact Chapter 547 clauses and plan the timing around a move, so an assumed handover does not turn into months of vacancy.

Frequently Asked Questions

This article is for informational purposes only and is not legal or real estate advice. Chapter 547 does not set out a step by step procedure for moving or selling, so any sequencing described above is practical guidance rather than a rule from the bylaw. Bylaw details change and the City applies discretion. Always confirm current rules and timing directly with the City of Toronto and Municipal Licensing and Standards before making hosting, listing, or purchase decisions. Rules quoted from Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 547, consolidated to January 1, 2025.