Rental Property - Owner Occupied Rules Ontario

[Mike Chmielewski]

Hey guys, First post on here. Just heard about BP from a buddy and soaking up as much information as I can. I’m currently looking into Duplexes, Triplexes, and Fourplexes in the Niagara to Hamilton region in Ontario. This will be my first home and I’m looking to purchase it as a rental property. I’d like to be able to take advantage of the cheaper down payment by occupying a unit. Does anybody know how long I need to occupy the unit before I can legally leave and rent all of the units out? Further to this, let’s say I only need to occupy the unit for X amount of months, do I need to go through the hassle of changing the address on all of my IDs etc? What are the stipulations behind this? Depending on where I buy the unit, I may be planning to occupy the unit for the shortest time possible then rent out all of the units. Any additional advice is greatly appreciated regarding best places to find listings for what I’m looking for, a good real estate agent that’s investor friendly, good markets to choose from to generate cash flow, cash on cash return, etc. Any information is welcome and I‘d love to hear what you all have to say.

[Brian Dean]

Hi Mike, welcome to BP, I’m new here too. I’m not 100% sure so someone else can also back it up, but I’m pretty sure you need to be in the place a minimum of a year, and you do need to change everything to be your primary residence. The reno time would count if you are living there during it.