Nova Scotia short-term rental rules: the dataset
Written by Casa Scotia, a Nova Scotia short-term rental manager. Not affiliated with any municipality or the Province. How we keep our interest out of it →
This dataset holds the short-term rental rules for every Nova Scotia municipality, plus the Province's own, in one JSON or CSV download. Every guide under rules by municipality is built from it, so both show the same reading for the same version.
One row is one rule for one place: its land use, a municipal licence, its marketing levy or another rule, each with status, source, dates and grade. In the JSON, the municipal step (a letter, permit, licence, certificate or registration) sits on the rule that creates it. What each field means
A value read in the official text is stated as fact. One resting only on a secondary source, such as a news report, names that publication. One we couldn't verify is flagged, and no guide shows it as fact. Grades: how sure each value is
Some rows record an absence, and say which kind: an official source saying there's no such rule, or a full read of the published by-laws that found none. An unfinished search is never recorded as none: the guide names the office to ask.
The Province asks for a municipal land-use document with every new registration, so a municipality without a licence still has a municipal step: where the data names none, the guide says which office to ask for it.
The JSON records who collects each adopted levy on each booking channel, with source and dates. A platform counts as collecting only where its own tax page, the entry's source, lists the municipality.
Otherwise the entry is operator where a municipal source says the host collects, or to_confirm: the guide then says the host adds and remits it unless the payout shows the platform collecting it.
Whether HST applies to a municipal levy is answered once, in the Province's record, from federal tax law and Canada Revenue Agency guidance. Where the data records who an adopted levy is charged to, it also records whether that rests on the by-law's text, a municipal page or an inference.
The Province's record gives each registration category's fee, including the home you live in; a commercial short-term rental (a home you don't live in), by tier; and a personal vacation home, kept mainly for the owner's use, at the traditional rate. Each municipality carries its tier.
A municipality whose guide is still coming is in the file too, with its office, tier and verified rules; the rest is withheld until its guide publishes.
The data doesn't say whether a property may be used as a short-term rental: the municipality decides that, from the zone, lot, building and who lives there. It names offices, never people, and holds nothing about any property or host. Condominium by-laws, leases, covenants, insurance terms and First Nations lands aren't covered.
Each municipality has two keys: id, the dataset's own, and slug, as in its guide's address, reserved where the guide is still coming. Each has its own file, and communities.json records which municipality a community is in, marking one that straddles a boundary.
Every export is versioned. The latest files keep one address; each version stays unchanged at its own, with a checksum. Rule changes are logged in plain words on the change log and its Atom feed; a re-check that changes nothing moves only the checked date. The files
If a row looks wrong, tell us which municipality and field, with a source if you have one; an error we verify is corrected in the next version and logged (how corrections work). To cite the data, name the version you used; the licence says what you may reuse. How to cite this dataset
The files
| File | What it holds |
|---|---|
| nova-scotia-str-rules.json | The latest full export, one record per municipality with its rules |
| nova-scotia-str-rules.csv | The same, one row per rule |
| communities.json | Every community and the municipality it sits in |
| CHANGELOG.md | What changed in each version |
units/<slug>.json | One municipality, by its slug |
v/2026-09-28.8.json, .csv | This version, unchanged at its own address, with its checksum |
On a phone, swipe the table sideways to see both columns.
What each field means
| Field | What it holds |
|---|---|
unit_id | The dataset’s own key for the municipality |
unit_slug | The key used in its guide’s address |
unit_name | Its legal name |
unit_type | Town, district, county or regional municipality |
region | The display region on the rules-by-municipality page |
provincial_tier | Its provincial fee tier for a commercial short-term rental |
wikidata_id | Its Wikidata entry |
rule_id | The rule’s own key |
kind | Land use, municipal licence, marketing levy, provincial registration or other |
code | Tells two rules of one kind apart |
status | In force, adopted but not in force, proposed, none, not found, or repealed |
flags | Qualifiers such as rate unconfirmed |
outcome_primary | The land-use outcome for the home you live in |
outcome_non_primary | The land-use outcome for a home you don’t live in |
rate_pct | A levy’s rate |
rate_label | The rate as the source writes it |
local_name | The levy’s own name |
fee_label | The municipal step’s fee as the source writes it |
effective_from | When the rule starts |
effective_to | When it ends |
instrument | The by-law or regulation behind it |
source_url | Where we read it |
source_quote | The words we relied on |
verified_on | When we last read it |
grade | How sure the value is (the grade legend) |
truth | How a guide shows it: fact, reported or under review |
next_review | When it is next due a re-read |
public_summary | A plain-English summary |
On a phone, swipe the table sideways to see both columns.
Grades: how sure each value is
| Label | Grade in the data | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Confirmed in source | VERIFIED, VERIFIED-CANONICAL, VERIFIED-DATA | Read in the official document on the date shown. Not a legal opinion. |
| Reported by <publication> | REPORTED, INFERENCE | Rests on a secondary source, which the guide names. Never stated as fact. |
| Under review | UNVERIFIED, SPECULATIVE, UNRESOLVED | Not confirmed; the value is withheld. |
| being re-checked | Last read more than 120 days ago; still shown, and due a re-read. | |
| Not current | Last read more than 365 days ago; withheld until re-read. | |
| Ask <office> … | The office hasn’t answered a question we sent it; the guide says whom to ask, and what, until it does. | |
| None | An official source says there isn’t one. | |
| None found | A full read of the published by-laws found none. Not a guarantee. | |
| Not named in the by-law | The land-use by-law doesn’t mention short-term rentals; the development officer decides how a rental is classified. |
On a phone, swipe the table sideways to see every column.
When it's re-checked
| What | When |
|---|---|
| Every rule | Each quarter, oldest first, in the first week of January, April, July and October |
| The provincial rules | Also each March, before the renewal deadline (April 1 each year) |
| Anything unsettled, and who collects each levy | About monthly |
| A levy adopted to start later | Before it starts |
| A reported change | Within five business days of the report |
On a phone, swipe the table sideways to see both columns.
How to cite this dataset
Casa Scotia, Nova Scotia short-term rental rules by municipality, version 2026-09-28.8, https://casascotia.com/regulations/data/
Licence
Casa Scotia’s compilation and summaries are licensed under CC BY 4.0. Quoted by-law and regulation text remains its publishers’.