Leaving Ottawa for Kemptville or Brockville: Sell Your House or Rent It Out?

A lot of Ottawa owners who decide to move toward Kemptville or Brockville ask the same thing once the new place feels real: why sell the Ottawa house at all? Rent it out, let someone else pay the mortgage, and keep a foot in the city. Sometimes that is a good plan. Sometimes it looks better on a napkin than it does a year in.

This article walks through what actually changes when the Ottawa house becomes a rental, so you can make the call before you list, not after. If you are still deciding the order of the two moves, start with whether to sell first or buy first.

Can you buy in the corridor without selling the Ottawa house?

This is the first question because it decides everything else. When you sell, your Ottawa equity usually becomes most of the down payment on the next home. That is the whole idea behind using Ottawa home equity toward a move to Brockville.

When you keep the house, that equity stays in the house. The down payment for the new place has to come from somewhere else: savings, or borrowing against the Ottawa property. Your lender will also look at carrying two properties at once. Before you fall for a house in Kemptville or Brockville, ask your mortgage professional to qualify you on the keep-and-rent plan specifically, not on the sell-and-buy plan you may have discussed earlier.

Selling versus renting it out, side by side

Here is how the two paths differ on the things that usually matter most.

The tax row deserves its own conversation with an accountant. We cover how the principal residence exemption works, including what happens when you move out and rent the whole house, in when the principal residence exemption does not cover the whole gain.

What you sign up for as an Ontario landlord

Renting out a house you used to live in puts you under the Residential Tenancies Act like any other landlord. A few rules surprise first-time landlords most often.

• The standard lease. Ontario's standard lease is required for most residential tenancy agreements signed on or after April 30, 2018. A single-family house you rent out is normally one of them.
• Rent increases. For most units, the increase during a tenancy is capped by the provincial guideline: 2.1 per cent for 2026 and 1.9 per cent for 2027. You generally have to wait 12 months between increases and give at least 90 days' written notice on the proper form.
• Older houses are usually covered by the guideline. The main exemption is for units first occupied for residential purposes after November 15, 2018. A house you have owned and lived in for years in Ottawa usually does not fall under that exemption.
• Setting the rent at the start. When a unit turns over to a new tenant, the starting rent is whatever you and the new tenant agree to. The guideline applies to increases after that.

Ottawa has its own landlord by-law

The City of Ottawa's Rental Housing Property Management By-law adds local duties on top of provincial law. The City's guide for landlords says landlords must give tenants an information package when the lease is signed, keep their contact details current, have a process for tenant service requests and respond within 24 hours for urgent requests and 7 days for others, and keep a pest management plan. The guide does not spell out how each duty applies to a single rented house, so call 3-1-1 if you are unsure what applies to yours.

If the house sits empty while you decide

An Ottawa house that is not anyone's principal residence and is unoccupied for more than 184 days in a calendar year can fall under the City's vacant unit tax. If you are planning a slow, part-time transition or a long gap between tenants, read how Ottawa's vacant unit tax works when you buy or sell.

What if you decide to sell it later with a tenant in it?

This is the part that catches people. Selling the house does not, by itself, end the tenancy. Under the Landlord and Tenant Board's guidance, a tenant can stay until they choose to leave, you both agree to end the tenancy, or the tenancy is ended for a reason the Act allows.

One of those reasons is a buyer who wants to live there. If the property has three or fewer residential units and you have signed an agreement of purchase and sale, the buyer, or certain family members or a caregiver, can require you to give the tenant notice on Form N12. The notice must be at least 60 days and end on the last day of a rental period or lease term. You can use the same form if you or certain family members want to move back in for at least a year.

In practice, a tenanted house can also be sold to an investor who keeps the tenant, but that narrows your pool of buyers. Either way, it is slower and less predictable than selling a house you can show and hand over empty.

A quick way to decide

• Ask your mortgage professional whether you qualify for the corridor home while still carrying the Ottawa house.
• Ask an accountant what the change from home to rental means for your taxes now and when you sell later.
• Call your lender and your insurer about the change in use before a tenant moves in.
• Price out a property manager, or be honest about how often you can get back to Ottawa to deal with repairs and requests.
• Decide how long you would realistically hold the house, and whether a sale with a tenant in place would work for you.
• Compare that with the simpler path of selling and putting the equity into the new home.

If the move is to North Grenville, our guide to moving from Ottawa to Kemptville covers the buying side.

Common questions

Can I keep the Ottawa house and rent it to a family member?

You can, but the same tenancy rules generally apply once someone is paying rent, and the tax questions do not go away because the tenant is family. Treat it as a real tenancy, with a lease, and get advice on the tax side.

Can I raise the rent to market when a tenant leaves?

Yes. When a unit turns over to a new tenant, the starting rent is whatever you and the new tenant agree to. The guideline then caps increases during that new tenancy.