Need advise from real estate investors in Mont-Tremblant

[Ahmad J.]

Hi All

I'm new to this forum and trying to get some information about short term rental market in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec.

Plan is to buy a land within 30 minutes from Mont-Tremblant ski resort and build a high end contemporary two bedroom cottage to rent it short term on platforms such as Airbnb.

I'm not from Canada and never been to Montreal, I'll travel to Montreal end of this month to choose a land.

I did my research, had a look at lands on realtor.com and I found big variation in prices (acre from 40k to 1 million), were obviously lake front, those where short term rental allowed and lands closer to the ski resort are the expensive ones but I think there're other justifications for the big variation in price which I'm not aware of. 

I need some advice in this regard (realtors are also welcome to connect), I prefer to buy a big land (3 - 10 acres) so people who rent can have the privacy and also for the possibility of building more cottages in the future.

I did a meeting with one architect and he gave me an approximate price for the construction but I'm also considering prefab houses since it's cheaper, are prefab good choice for short term rentals?

This is my first business and I'm planning to build three to five more cottages in the coming 8 years or so, any important points related to taxes that I have to be aware of? I know that I have to pay HST/GST (14.9%) and Airbnb collects the lodging tax (3.5%) from guests but not sure if there are any other taxes, also if I should start corporation?

Any advises in this regard are highly appreciated.

Thanks