Short-term rental registration and levy costs in Nova Scotia, by municipality.

Two public bodies charge a short-term rental in Nova Scotia: the province, through the registry every host must join, and the municipality, through a marketing levy where one has been adopted and sometimes through a fee for its own permit or letter. This page sets out both from the same by-law-checked data the municipal guides are built on, so the figures here and the figures in a guide never disagree.

The provincial registration fee

The fee depends on the category you register in, and for a home you don’t live in, on the municipality’s tier: None — fees are for the Registration Year, are not prorated, and are non-refundable. The registration renews by April 1 each year. A home registered as a personal vacation home carries its own limit: 150 rental days per registration year; an applicant may register only one personal vacation home.

The municipal marketing levy, by municipality

A marketing levy is a percentage of the accommodation charge that a municipality adopts under provincial authority and spends on tourism. Which platforms collect it is a municipality-by-municipality fact: the table names the platforms the export records as collecting in each one, and says where a channel is still to confirm; where a platform collects, you see it taken on the payout, and on a direct booking you add it to the guest’s bill and remit it to the municipality yourself. The table also gives each levy’s date, whether HST is charged on it where the municipality’s rule says so, and the provincial fee tier that sets the registration fee for a home you don’t live in.

The municipal step before you register

The registry’s first step is the municipality’s: Get the municipality's proof that the accommodation complies with its land-use by-law. In some municipalities that is a letter from the planning office, in others a permit or a licence, and the fee for it, where there is one, is the municipality’s own. Each guide names the step for its municipality, with the fee and the office that issues it; the checker on the regulations page lists them for your situation.

What it adds up to

For the home you live in, the cost is the flat provincial fee each year, plus whatever the municipality charges for its letter or permit, plus the levy on each booking where one is in force. For a home you don’t live in, the provincial fee is the commercial fee for the municipality’s tier, and the municipal step comes with its own fee where the municipality charges one, before the levy on each booking. A home that is let as a personal vacation home stays inside its day cap. None of it is a reason not to start; all of it belongs in the plan before the first booking, which is why the calculator’s rules card and the guides carry the same figures as this page.

Questions owners ask

Related articles

• Owner Resources

  What a short-term rental earns in Nova Scotia, market by market

  Nightly rates, occupancy and annual revenue for every market Casa Scotia tracks, typical and premium, bound to the monthly data.

  6 min read

• Owner Resources

  HST on short-term rentals in Nova Scotia

  The rate, what it applies to, the small-supplier threshold, the month-long exemption and the levy, from the province’s own record.

  5 min read

• Owner Resources

  How to Switch Short-Term Rental Managers in Nova Scotia

  A step-by-step guide to changing STR managers in Nova Scotia: listing ownership, booked reservations, notice periods, money in flight and compliance.

  7 min read