1731 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

The province says short-term rentals have a role in tourism, but B.C.’s housing minister will bring in stronger regulations this fall after communities have expressed concerns about the extent of housing they’re losing.

 

“We believe there’s too much of our housing stock that is right now being used as short-term rental when it could be supporting residents in British Columbia,” Ravi Kahlon said in an interview.

 

Victoria is seeing a 28 per cent year-over-year increase in the number of housing units being pulled into the short-term market. Cost analyses done by the capital city, based on data from McGill University, found Victoria renter households are paying an average of $1,150 more every year due to housing being converted to vacation accommodations.

 

 

 

 

https://www.vicnews....lations-1651074

 

 

 

“I’m very concerned. We’re in the challenge that we’re in when it comes to housing and hearing numbers of that magnitude shifting, it’s a significant concern and not only in Victoria, this is a concern that’s being raised throughout the province,” Kahlon said.

 

While the province believes the short-term market plays an important role in some areas, it’s recently heard from tourism-dependant communities who are saying they don’t have enough places for their workforce to live.

 

The capital likely has more than enough capacity to support tourists overnighting in the city without short-term rentals. In May, the number of vacancies at the city’s traditional accommodation businesses – like hotels, motels and Bed and Breakfasts – was more than double (38,409) the nights booked at short-term rentals (19,119).

 

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He’s also aware of an issue Victoria has raised around legal non-conforming buildings. Condo units in those buildings have grandfathered-in short-term rental allowances because that use predated the city’s bylaws. Victoria’s regulations can’t block legal non-conforming units from entering the short-term market without provincial legislation changes, and the city said that means hundreds of units could be converted.

 

City staff also said they regularly get asked for a list of all the legal non-conforming units, mostly by realtors and investors.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 05 August 2023 - 03:19 AM.

[Mike K.]

This was already supposed to have been fixed under a previous council.

Look: https://victoria.cit...bnb-properties/

Here we’re talking evolution of the transient zoning, from 2016: https://victoria.cit...uts-down-roots/

They had tried to charge AirBnBs commercial taxes, but the province stopped them.

[spanky123]

Of course the politicians completely fail to address the main issue which is that many people refuse to put their units into longer-term rental because rent controls are fixed well below even inflation let alone tax increases and tenant-friendly laws mean that you cannot even break even on the investment. 

 

All that will happen is that the units will be sold to newcomers and taken out of the rental pool altogether. 

[Victoria Watcher]

Yup.

[phx]

 

...Victoria renter households are paying an average of $1,150 more every year due to housing being converted to vacation accommodations.

 

Think how much renters would save if we just banned hotels...

[Victoria Watcher]

A remote Canadian island is breaking ground on a new way to buffer the negative effects short-term vacation rentals have on the housing crisis facing small, rural tourism-based communities.

 

BC’s Cortes Island is making housing history as the first community in the province to tax short-term holiday rentals and have all the funds directed to affordable housing projects, said Mark Vonesch, the area’s Strathcona Regional District director.

 

A three per cent Municipal and Regional District Tax (MRDT) has been applied to vacation rentals since July 1, Vonesch said.

 

The tax will be collected by the province and directed monthly to the Cortes Housing Society to support the development of the 24-unit Rainbow Ridge affordable rental project.

 

 

https://www.capitald...ng-consequences

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 11 September 2023 - 05:15 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Vancouver councillors will increase the licence cost for short-term rentals in the city from $109 to $1,000 next year.

 

The nearly-100-per-cent increase will mean property owners — behind close to 4,500 active rentals on sites such as Airbnb — will face a further barrier to earning revenue from suites in the rental-strapped, high-cost city, whose leaders say they're struggling to finance city services.

 

Patrick Baldwin, who has been an Airbnb host for the past five years, says the new licence fee will affect his family's ability to live in Vancouver, as the income through Airbnb has made his mortgage affordable.

 

 

https://www.cbc.ca/n...roved-1.6966527

 

 

 

 

CBC reporter failed math.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 September 2023 - 01:01 PM.

[dasmo]

So now vacation rentals will also be more expensive. Doing nothing is better…

[Victoria Watcher]

Coun. Adriane Carr said she voted for the amended increase in Vancouver because hosts have the ability to generate revenue to offset the licence fee.

 

"So, the ability to recoup those increases is higher than any other fee," she said, while agreeing that city staff needed more resources to enforce short-term rental rules in the city.

 

 

?

 

Under that reasoning, why not increase all fees and taxes on business by 1000%?  Since they can simply generate revenue to offset their fees.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 September 2023 - 01:09 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

This B.C. city is using short-term rental tax funds to build affordable rentals for hospitality workers




Money collected from short-term rental taxes in Victoria, a city that has some of the highest rents in country, will be used to fund affordable housing units that will prioritize hospitality workers.

At a meeting on Sept. 7, Victoria city council unanimously agreed to allocate $2.5 million from its housing reserve fund — which includes tax revenue collected from online accommodation platform bookings such as Airbnb — for the non-profit Greater Victoria Housing Society to build an apartment building with 40 units of affordable workforce housing.

"We're getting all sorts of attention from all over B.C. and Canada because it is dedicated workforce housing in the city, which is quite novel," Paul Nursey, CEO of Destination Greater Victoria, told CBC's All Points West. "It's taxation with a purpose and a plan that's being executed."


https://www.cbc.ca/n...using-1.6967230

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 20 September 2023 - 02:35 AM.

[Nparker]

The same hospitality workers who make $80/hour in tips over and above their hourly wage?

[spanky123]

The same hospitality workers who make $80/hour in tips over and above their hourly wage?

 

What they meant to say are hospitality workers who volunteer on council election teams.

[Victoria Watcher]

It's a bit of a specious shell-game.

 

Charge AirBnB guests more with the tax.

 

Give it to the City.

 

They give it to "hospitality workers" in the form of lower rent?

[dasmo]

No, they give it to builders in the form of no bid contracts…

Edited by dasmo, 20 September 2023 - 07:06 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

And what happens to the 17 families now in the current building?

Sounds like a renoviction!

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 20 September 2023 - 07:09 AM.

[Mike K.]

Province is going after short term rentals:

Turning short-term rentals into homes for people is at the core of newly introduced legislation to regulate the rapidly expanding short-term rental market.

“Anyone who’s looking for an affordable place to live knows how hard it is, and short-term rentals are making it even more challenging,” said Premier David Eby. “The number of short-term rentals in B.C. has ballooned in recent years, removing thousands of long-term homes from the market. That’s why we’re taking strong action to rein in profit-driven mini-hotel operators, create new enforcement tools and return homes to the people who need them.”

Short-term rental listings on online platforms (which may include, for example, Airbnb, VRBO, Expedia, FlipKey) have expanded rapidly over recent years. Data shows that it continues to surge since the COVID-19 pandemic. B.C.’s short-term rental market is now at an all-time high, diverting thousands of long-term rental homes onto the short-term market. Currently, there are approximately 28,000 daily active short-term rental listings in B.C., an increase of 20% from a year ago. Data indicates that more than 16,000 entire homes are being listed as short-term rentals for the majority of a calendar year.

"The short-term rental market is creating serious challenges in B.C. and around the world,” said Ravi Kahlon, Minister of Housing. “Operators with multiple listings are taking homes off the long-term market to make big profits while people pay the price – it can’t go on like this. The legislation is comprehensive and designed to target areas with high housing needs. It's strong action and a thoughtful approach to tackle the growing short-term rental challenge and deliver more homes for people.”

The short-term rental market in B.C. is dominated by a small segment of profit-driven operators. Research from McGill University shows the top 10% of hosts earn nearly half of all revenue. Nearly half of all operators have multiple listings. Approximately 30 municipalities, including Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna, have introduced short-term rental bylaws and licence fees to regulate the short-term rental market. The proposed legislation builds on those bylaws and equips municipalities with more enforcement tools.

The legislation focuses on three key areas:

increasing fines and strengthening tools for local governments;
returning more short-term rentals to long-term homes; and
establishing provincial rules and enforcement.
Changes to how short-term rentals operate will come into effect through a phased-in approach and will include:

Increasing fines and better tools for local governments:
increasing fines for operators breaking local rules to support local municipal bylaws, and requiring short-term rental platforms to share data to strengthen local enforcement;
requiring online short-term rental platforms to share their data with the Province, so the Province can provide that information to local governments for enforcement and support of provincial and federal tax auditing;
requiring short-term rental platforms to include businesses licence numbers on listings where they are used by a local government, and to remove listings without them quickly to ensure local rules are being followed; and
giving regional districts the ability to issue business licences so they can more effectively regulate short-term rentals in rural areas.
Returning more short-term rentals into long-term homes for people:
requiring short-term rentals in B.C. to be offered only in the principal residence* of a host in municipalities with a population of 10,000 people or more
(*principal residence plus one secondary suite or laneway home/garden suite on the property is allowed);
forthcoming regulations will specify areas exempt from the principal residence requirement, including 14 resort regions, mountain resort areas, municipalities under 10,000 population (except those within 15 kilometres to larger municipalities), and regional district electoral areas; and
removing legal non-conforming use protections for short-term rentals being taken advantage of by investors to support local governments’ efforts to set rules about where these units can operate in communities.
Establishing provincial rules and enforcement:
establishing a provincial host and platform registry by late 2024 for stronger accountability; and
launching a provincial short-term rental compliance and enforcement unit to make sure rules are being followed.
Updating how short-term rentals are operated and enforced will contribute to thousands of homes being returned to the market over the next few years, while giving smaller communities and communities that are heavily reliant on short-term-rental-related tourism some flexibility. These areas will be able to choose to opt into the principal residence requirements depending on housing pressures in their communities.

Communities on First Nations reserve land will be exempt from the legislation. Modern Treaty Nations will also be exempt from the legislation but will be able to opt into the legislation, if desired.

This proposed legislation will not apply to hotels and motels. Regulations are also being drafted to exempt additional types of properties, for example, timeshares and fishing lodges, which are not intended to be covered under the scope of the legislation.

This legislation is part of the Province’s Homes for People action plan. Announced in spring 2023, the plan builds on historic action to deliver housing since 2017, and sets out further actions to deliver the homes people need faster, while creating more vibrant communities throughout B.C.

[Szeven]

So is it correct that if the home, in an area of over 10,000 people, is not my principal residence I cant Airbnb it?

 

Are grandfathered legal non-conforming units now illegal?

[spanky123]

So is it correct that if the home, in an area of over 10,000 people, is not my principal residence I cant Airbnb it?

 

Are grandfathered legal non-conforming units now illegal?

 

Correct and correct sounds like. 

[lanforod]

So is it correct that if the home, in an area of over 10,000 people, is not my principal residence I cant Airbnb it?

 

Are grandfathered legal non-conforming units now illegal?

 

Thats my understanding. Also, would apply to smaller towns too due to proximity. I.E. View Royal too, maybe Metchosin, Highlands.

[Matt R.]

Whew. At least salt spring is exempt.