Kelowna moves to loosen up short-term rental rules
Kelowna city council has decided to loosen up its short-term rental rules after a year of complaints from residents.
Council directed staff to draw up new bylaws that align with the provincial short-term rental laws at a meeting yesterday, Jan. 20.
The changes to the short-term rental bylaw are meant to help the tourism industry, make the rules easier to enforce and respond to the criticism.
“Kelowna's STR regulations have faced criticism from local businesses and developers. Wineries, restaurants, tour operators, construction firms, plumbing services and home furnishing stores have claimed that a shortage of short-term rentals has hurt their summer business,” the staff report to council said.
The current rules will remain in place until council can vote on the bylaw changes as early as March.
“When the city introduced the bylaws, more restrictive than the province, it was trying to protect and increase long-term rental stocks. That was one of the main things. Plus we didn't have the resources to properly enforce it. We had so many illegal operations and demands on city bylaw officers,” councillor Rick Webber said during Monday's meeting. “We still have, I think, hundreds of non-legal short-term rentals operating right now.”
READ MORE: Did Kelowna's short-term rental ban impact summer business? The city crunched the numbers
As it stands, only existing secondary use short-term rentals with a valid city license are allowed to operatey.
The regulations came into effect on May 1, 2024 after there was a 93 per cent rise in short-term rentals in Kelowna between 2020 and 2023, from 630 to 1,217. Now there are only 427 legal short-term rentals in the city.
The the changes mean the city bylaw would be closer to the provincial regulations that require a short term rental owner to get a license from the city, and have the rental on the same property where the owner lives.
The province also allows people to rent out a secondary suite, or something like a carriage house, but the maximum is two short-term rentals on one property.
“Utilizing the provincial system along with principal residences only creates clarity for people, but also gives us the tools we need to enforce it if people aren't following the rules,” councillor Loyal Wooldridge told his fellow councillors.
READ MORE: 'I lost $50K': An Okanagan summer without Airbnb
The province has announced it is setting up a registry for short-term rentals, and the city’s development planning department manager Nola Kilmartin said the registry would help crack down on illegal short-term rentals.
“We are taking action to help more people find a home in the communities they love by reining in speculators who are operating illegally,” housing minister Ravi Kahlon said in a press release. “The launch of the registry is the next step to provide more long-term homes for people, giving hosts who are playing by the rules the ability to continue to legally operate and welcome guests while further cracking down on speculators who are breaking the rules.”
Another reason for relaxing the short-term rental rules is to help with enforcement. Aligning the city’s rules with the province would open the door for the city to be eligible for enforcement funding from higher levels of government.
“We don't cut down the whole orchard if we've got a few bad apples. So we need to look at from a community perspective to be able to have those tools,” councillor Ron Cannan said.
Kelowna’s vacancy rate recently hit 3.8 per cent, and if it stays this high for two years in a row it could mean looser short-term rental rules in the future.
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