1731 replies to this topic

[DavidL]

Maybe, just maybe, given that it will be an election year, people will realize that 10 or 15 years of less than ideal planning and leadership provided at the municipal level might be to blame for a whole raft of issues, including housing.  Many council seats have been occupied by essentially the same people for quite a while, a change in direction might be a good start.  Or blame housing prices on the Chinese and believe that downtown is over run by street people because we have nice weather, and carry on.

[Mike K.]

Oh it’s been 30-40 years of this stuff. The attitude won’t change in 2018.

[sebberry]

New York City is using sheriffs and obscure building code violations to crack down on Airbnb

 

Shortly after Nan Doyle stepped out for brunch on Labor Day, three men with badges rang the bell to her apartment in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood.

 

Doyle’s Airbnb guest answered. He was staying with her in the three-story brownstone she bought with her husband in 1998. The badged men asked if they could speak with the owner and, when the guest said she was out, they asked whether he was renting the apartment. The man said yes, he and his family had booked it through Airbnb. The badged men then asked if they could enter to inspect the building’s sprinkler system, which they said might violate New York City’s building codes. When the Airbnb guest refused, they wrote out four civil summonses.

 

[...]

 

 

https://qz.com/1084108/1084108/

[MarkoJ]

The foreign buyer issue sure disappeared quickly, hey? We went from the narrative that foreign buyers are eating up units and leaving them empty for one reason or another, to AirBnB operators eating up units and displacing home purchasers or renters.

 

Remember when Sid Tafler would count dark windows in condo buildings and claim in letters to local papers that they were empty units purchased by wealthy out-of-towners or foreigners? And people ate that up.

 

What'll be the boogeyman next year?

 

So where does the council go after these new Airbnb rules don't improve affordability?

[rjag]

Unused bedroom tax. They will require an inventory of bedrooms and compare to number of adults in the home and charge an under utilization tax to 'encourage ' rooms to be rented or you to sell and downsize.

Note to VV Censor Board. No disparaging remarks made or implied against any member of Victoria council ❄️ 😐

Edited by rjag, 30 September 2017 - 09:00 AM.

[tjv]

Note to VV Censor Board. No disparaging remarks made or implied against any member of Victoria council ❄

Kudos do you because that is tougher and tougher to do

[Cityguy]

And I guess it's okay for the huge, multi-national hotel chains to siphon-off all the profits from the local tourism market and send them back to their head offices in Chicago, LA or wherever? In the meantime, small local entrepreneurs are being penalized and shut down by excessive regulations and the looming possibility of a tripling of their property taxes.

Where will the "not so affluent" families who wish to visit Victoria stay? In a hotel where rates range upwards of $200-$350 per night? This is a move in the wrong direction. Our market economy is changing to a "sharing" economy, away from a "top down" corporate economy. 

Our council should be considering innovated, out-of-the-box ideas, such as this one proposed by a Seattle company https://www.springwi...e-payment-home/

Here in Victoria, regressive, small-minded politics seem to rule the day.

[VicHockeyFan]

Follow the money! A Chinese bike share company just set up with no tegulations.

[sdwright.vic]

Kudos do you because that is tougher and tougher to do

But it's okay for you to get butthurt when someone questions you and your motives in being pissy?

Can't have it both ways. When some high up the pecking order questioned and "insulted" you, you requested Armageddon against that person. Someone questions you and you go for a liable suit?

[tjv]

I wasn't "butthurt", merely that no standards were being maintained in the forum and you seem to want to start it up all over again.   stop picking at scabs and chill out

 

lol "someone high up the pecking order" - so the more posts you have here the higher up the pecking order you are? that's hilarious but now been said more than once     

[Mike K.]

Ok, can we end this now before sparky needs to step in?

[spanky123]

Follow the money! A Chinese bike share company just set up with no tegulations.

 

It is really a local startup funded by Alacrity. The Chinese angle sounds good for a Mayor trying to justify the expenses for her trip to China.

[tjv]

Hey Mike, I want this over and I thought my post inferred that.  I wasn't the one who brought it up again

 

Now back to our regular scheduled programming...

[manuel]

@vistro let's discuss pros and cons of outing airbnb rentals. Is there a similar twitter handle for victoria? Is the issue big enough here?

[VicHockeyFan]

Interesting.  The CoVancouver was filing all the complaints by twitter, but they gave up.  Now want folks to phone in.

[Jackerbie]

In today's AirBNB news:

 

Seattle has approved a short term rental tax of $14/unit or $8/room, per night http://www.king5.com/news/local/seattle/seattle-lawmakers-approve-new-airbnb-tax/491680373

 

Vancouver has approved a licensing scheme for short term rental operators http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-council-short-term-rentals-vote-nov-14-1.4400995

- Primary residence only

- Secondary suites cannot be used for short term rentals

[VicHockeyFan]

Has rental affordability and availability wildly increased now?

[Mike K.]

Has anyone actually taken the time to assess the real-world impact of curtailing AirBnB to the point Vancouver is curtailing it? There's a quickly growing component of the tourism industry reliant 100% on AirBnB for their travel choices. No AirBnB, no go.

[VicHockeyFan]

Has anyone actually taken the time to assess the real-world impact of curtailing AirBnB to the point Vancouver is curtailing it? There's a quickly growing component of the tourism industry reliant 100% on AirBnB for their travel choices. No AirBnB, no go.

 

And they do not want to sleep in your spare bedroom and share your bathroom and kitchen, they want a self-contained private suite.

[Mike K.]

Absolutely. The number of people who are seeking super budget shared accommodations is about equal to that number of people who seek out hostels vs. traditional hotel rooms.

 

We have what, two hostels in downtown Victoria and what ...two dozen hotels?