New York City is nearly banning Airbnb, should the Thompson-Okanagan follow?
Recent reviews on the impact of short-term rentals in the Okanagan show they're replacing a number of long-term rental units.
During a workshop in July, Kelowna city council made it very clear that it wants to crack down on bad operators and greatly restrict what homes can be rented out.
But nothing is being suggested like the drastic new rules imposed by New York City last week that will shut down the vast majority of its more than 40,000 short-term rental properties.
“Local Law 18, which came into force Tuesday (Sept. 5), is so strict it doesn’t just limit how Airbnb operates in the city — it almost bans it entirely for many guests and hosts,” Wired magazine wrote. “From now on, all short-term rental hosts in New York must register with the city, and only those who live in the place they’re renting — and are present when someone is staying — can qualify. And people can only have two guests.”
While some landlords are just trying to make ends meet, others have hundreds of listings that can bring noise, trash and danger, as well as pricing others out of their own neighbourhoods, the magazine wrote.
READ MORE: Airbnb limits some new reservations in New York City as short-term rental regulations go into effect
Other cities around the world have put limits — some as low as 30 — on the number of nights per year a unit can be rented.
Quebec, following a tragic fire in a Montreal heritage home that killed seven people in illegal Airbnb suites in March, has imposed tough new licencing regulations. That places the onus on the booking companies, like Airbnb, to make sure everyone who posts on their site has legal registration numbers and lists certificate expiration dates.
Failure to do so could trigger fines up to $100,000 per listing for the booking agencies.
Kelowna isn’t going nearly that far and the details of just what the city will do won’t be known for a few weeks.
Council gave staff clear direction that it doesn’t want short term rental suites in apartments, townhomes or single-family houses. The local politicians also want enforceable rules about how many days a year the owner has to live in their home, and bring in stiffer fines for violations.
READ MORE: Kelowna set to crack down on short-term rentals
The provincial government is also planning on introducing legislation this fall to give local governments more power to control short-term rentals.
“Short-term rental of homes in BC is diverting much-needed long-term rental housing off the market,” Ravi Kahlon, BC’s Minister of Housing, said in an email to iNFOnews.ca. “This is a significant problem that contributes to a very low rental vacancy rate and high rents in most BC communities.”
In its report to city council in July, Kelowna city staff reported that since 2020, there have been 70 long-term rentals taken out of that market and put into the short-term rental pool and the number of short-term rental units had almost doubled to 1,139 by June of this year.
A detailed review conducted for the City of Penticton painted a much grimmer picture in terms of its long-term rental market.
“Short term rentals are impacting affordability in the community by increasing rents for renters and removing roughly 200 units from the long-term rental market,” said a detailed report on short-term rentals sent to Penticton city council in May.
The report said it’s not easy to determine how many short-term rentals actually exist in that city since some are only offered in the summer while some are year-round.
There are 374 licenced units in Penticton but about 500 listed online at any given time, the report said.
They make up 18% of summer tourist accommodations and contribute 25% of tourism revenue, often providing places to stay for families and in areas where there are no hotels,” the report says.
Another report to West Kelowna council in May found one year after licencing rules were put in place, there were 782 active listing for short-term rentals but only 25 to 35% were licenced.
“Local governments need additional tools to address challenges related to compliance and enforcement of local bylaws governing short-term rentals, and we’re delivering on those needs,” the email from Kahlon said. “We are working with local governments to make it easier for them to ensure that short-term rental platforms and hosts play by the rules — and help return much-needed long-term rental homes into the market.”
One option presented to Kelowna city council was just to ban short-term rentals outright but council was not prepared to go that far. Even the strict new rules in New York City do not constitute a total ban. And, it remains to be see how long that crackdown will last.
Berlin essentially banned Airbnb in 2016 but let it back in again in 2018, although with tight restrictions. Even with a ban there were still plenty of units offered for rent illegally, according to a 2018 Bloomberg article.
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