What counts as 'vacant' for Toronto's municipal vacant home tax if I only stay there part-time?

Whether a property counts as "vacant" generally turns on whether it's used as a principal residence, or actually lived in for a set portion of the year, by you, a permitted occupant, or a tenant. A property you only use part-time - a pied-a-terre you stay in occasionally but that isn't really your main home and isn't rented out - can be treated as vacant under the bylaw unless it happens to qualify under one of the city's specific defined exemption categories.

This is one of the more misunderstood aspects of the tax, because owners sometimes assume that any personal use at all, even occasional, is enough to avoid the tax. It generally isn't, if the actual occupancy falls short of what the program requires. The specific exemption categories and occupancy thresholds are part of the municipal program and can be updated, so if you have a property you use only occasionally, it's worth checking the current year's exact occupancy requirements and exemption list directly, rather than assuming part-time personal use is automatically enough on its own to avoid being classified as vacant.