Airbnb Regulations One Year Later

Last year, Vancouver introduced new regulations on short-term rentals like those listed on Airbnb and VRBO. The city now requires that any property rented for less than 30 days be the homeowner or listing tenant’s primary residence. This eliminates basement suites, laneway houses or secondary homes from being legally listed on sites like Airbnb for less than 30 days.

Listers must also obtain a business license for rentals under 30 days. The license can only apply to one property. 

Kathryn Holm, Vancouver’s chief licensing inspector, says the regulations are working very well so far. Certainly, at the beginning of enforcement, there was a drastic reduction in the number of Airbnb listings. Overall, the number of listings has decreased by 40% since its peak. The total number of nights available to book has gone down by half. 

Still, 32% of listings are managed by a ‘host’ with multiple properties in Vancouver. But, surprisingly, this is the lowest proportion of all 17 Canadian municipalities that were measured.

The larger question remains – are the regulations making an impact on increasing the vacancy rate, which is definitely its intended purpose? And predictably, the answer is – not really.

Downtown, 1 out of every 40 condos remain Airbnb rentals. There are also over 100 Vancouver mansions available for rent on the site, with room for at least ten people. 

The new law is still just a band-aid on the larger issue. It’s politically valuable, in that everyone has an opinion on Airbnb. It’s a widely recognized plague on our neighbourhoods, and it hits that special nerve for Vancouverites who instinctively decry profiting at society’s expense. 

But it’s not going to do much to bring rental prices down, or to meaningfully increase the number of available rental units. Putting a stop to small profits made off exploiting loopholes on Airbnb is not going to make or break the housing crisis. 

That’s not to say it’s not a good idea – but it makes it easier for city council to avoid taking more courageous action. It’s a vote-getter, but as voters, we have to remind them that there’s much better ways of addressing the rental shortage. 

The best way is streamlining permitting for purpose-built rental projects. That problem is getting worse, not better, and it’s a glaring inefficiency that can be easily solved with the right amount of political will. 

There also should be bigger and better incentives for building purpose-built rental projects. Waiving development fees, increasing density allowances – these are better ideas than cutting off your neighbour’s side hustle.