Whether we’re selling a house or a condo or helping clients buy a property, we often end up talking about bedrooms. How many bedrooms, what type of windows they have, size of the closets and so on.

As a result of that, about once a week we have a conversation with a client about the definition of a bedroom. After all, when we’re working with someone to buy or sell real estate, the number of bedrooms matters a great deal. Is it a three bedroom house, plus den, that is too small for a prospective buyer with three kids? Or is it a four bedroom house that is just right? How you define a room and whether it is in fact a bedroom, or just a den, matters.

Given the impact that number of bedrooms has on the value of a property, we took it upon ourselves to find out the exact definition. If you think it’s about windows, or closets, or doors, you might be surprised at the answer.

Let’s look at how a bedroom is defined in Canada, in Ontario, in Toronto and by our local real estate board.

Canada: A Nation United by Minimum Bedroom Standards

Starting at the country-wide level, the National Building Code mostly takes a hands-off approach, leaving the details to provinces and municipalities. It does provide clarity on a few things, such as the size required for it to be a bedroom. Seven square meters is the magical number, so if your room’s smaller than that, it’s more of a “den” or “a tiny place for existential crises” than a bedroom. Canada’s national rulebook doesn’t care about closets and there is no requirement at the national level for a bedroom to have a closet.

Ontario: The Province of Spacious Ambitions

Zooming in to Ontario, things don’t change much. The Ontario Building Code sticks to the same philosophy: dimensions, dimensions, dimensions. The 7-square-meter rule applies province-wide but it also clarifies that the ceiling height needs to be 2.3 meters.

When it comes to windows, the OBC is less clear, so while it does say that “every room used for sleeping in any building, and every principal room such as living room, dining room or combination of them in dwelling units shall be provided with windows”, that is a little confusing. Basically, all bedrooms need to have windows, but also every principal room, which means…all rooms? By that standard, any interior room can’t be a…room?

Even the Residential Tenancies Act gets into the discussion, requiring every bedroom to have a window, but then it says that window can be part of a door. The end result seems to be you can’t have a room without ventilation of some sort, be it a window, a door or even some sort of mechanical ventilation like a fan. Given we haven’t yet encountered a magical room that somehow exists as a room without a door or doorway, this seems like a meaningless stipulation.

Toronto: The Big City with Even Bigger Bedroom Standards

In Toronto, where space is at a premium, the definition of a bedroom is shockingly straightforward. A bedroom in Toronto is really just a room with:

  • Space to lie down: It needs to be at least 7 square meters (about 75 square feet), so if you can’t fit a twin bed in there without turning it into a game of Tetris, it’s probably not a bedroom.
  • Headroom: The ceiling height has to be at least 2.3 meters (about 7 feet, 6 inches) for half of the room. If you’re constantly crouching, you might just be living in a glorified closet.
  • Escape hatch: There has to be a window big enough to climb out of in case you want to make a quick exit—5.7 square feet of window space, to be exact. So, no trying to pass off your windowless broom closet as a bedroom.
  • Breath of fresh air: Natural light and ventilation are a must. So, if your “bedroom” feels like a dungeon with no windows, it’s time to reconsider your floor plan.
  • Closets? Optional! If you’re in Toronto, storage space is more of a “nice to have” than a legal requirement.

Toronto Regional Real Estate Board: That’s None of Our Business

We spoke with the good folks at the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB), as they run the MLS system that displays listings in Toronto and a large part of the GTA. They confirmed that they do not have an official definition of a bedroom that Realtors must follow and that we should check with local municipalities to make sure we’re accurate in describing a room in a listing as a bedroom.

The Bottom Line: It’s All About the Space (and the Window)

In the end, calling something a bedroom boils down to this: Can you fit a bed in it, stand up without hitting your head, and get out if you need to? If the answer to all three is yes, then it likely qualifies as a bedroom. There is definitely no need for it to have a closet to qualify as a bedroom, so you can drop that fact at your next cocktail party with confidence!

Understanding the rules (or the basics of them) is useful but doesn’t change the fact that it is a bit of a wild west situation in many real estate markets, with listing agents playing fast and loose with the number of bedrooms in the home. If you are looking for a new home and want to make sure that see places with actual bedrooms instead of theoretical bedrooms, get in touch with us!