1843 replies to this topic

[spanky123]

I have a trip coming up. Zero AirBnBs have been booked for our stays. We decided having hotels was a safer bet to make sure we didn’t have check in hiccups and could leave our luggage after check-out for a few hours before heading off to another place.

 

Had a trip planned recently and a week before arrival my host informed me that their municipality had complained so Airbnb cancelled the reservation.  Fortunately for me, they created a new listing and I was able to rebook (at a discount) and get my stay. Lots of people playing the whack a mole game in some cities. Definitely a risk.

 

One of the deeks I am hearing about is that someone rents a secondary apartment or condo long term, 'moves' there and then puts their primary residence on Airbnb to meet the primary residence requirement. 

Edited by spanky123, 31 August 2024 - 11:08 AM.

[sebberry]

Myself and a couple of friends worked at an event over on the lower mainland this summer.  Because I rather dislike sharing my personal space, my preference was for hotels but we ended up renting the upstairs of a house for 2/3 the cost of hotels.  I very much agree the convenience of a house-like arrangement (kitchen, etc...) is helpful.   I still hate taking turns waiting for the shower though.  Ick.  Anyway, I've long thought that these options need to be available - hotels don't serve all use cases well.  

 

This was also clearly a STR property - no personal effects at all outside basic furnishings and decorations.  I can't imagine renting out my home with all my private stuff for the guests to rummage through.  

[Victoria Watcher]

no personal effects at all outside basic furnishings and decorations.  I can't imagine renting out my home with all my private stuff for the guests to rummage through.  

 

It's not for everyone, that's for sure.

 

I stayed once at an Air BnB in Sylvan Lake.  Had to walk daily right through the homeowners main level house to get to the basement suite.  Seemed odd.

[Victoria Watcher]

Victoria condo owners seek compensation for property-value drop due to new rental rules

The owners of 22 strata units argue legislation limiting the strata units’ use amounts to expropriation

https://www.timescol...l-rules-9702417

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 October 2024 - 12:44 PM.

[Mike K.]

They should also be concerned about the tax implication of switching the unit from short term rental use to long term rental use or their own residency in the unit. The CRA expects GST to be paid.

Besides being a deemed disposal for income tax purposes (see below), there are GST/HST consequences if a short-term rental property, such as an Airbnb property, is converted to a long-term rental, or if it is converted for personal use. GST or HST may be payable on the market value of the property at the time of the conversion.

https://www.taxtips....google_vignette

[m3m]

Yup. Better just to sell.

[Matt R.]

No need to submit gst if your revenue is <$30k, no?

[Victoria Watcher]

They should have at least in those buildings, received the same exemption those properties got up-Island.  Problem here is the City did not go to bat for these owners here, like the city did up-Island.

[Ismo07]

They should have at least in those buildings, received the same exemption those properties got up-Island.  Problem here is the City did not go to bat for these owners here, like the city did up-Island.

 

If the province really wants to get these units into the market they could at the very least go to bat about minimizing that if they are basically be forced to sell.

[Victoria Watcher]

 

Wipe out every Air BnB and it converts to long-term rental and you only cover 3 months of immigration.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 05 December 2024 - 01:48 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

[Victoria Watcher]

[dasmo]

Imagine how the First Nations felt when they were experiencing this. Locally the W̱SÁNEĆ used to use the entire cost line and summer on James Island for fishing and harvesting seafood. Kicked off to make way for a dynamite plant. Corralled into reservations. At least the Crown gave them self government. 

[Victoria Watcher]

British Columbia's housing crisis is a cruel irony. We face a desperate shortage of long-term rentals, yet witness hotels lobbying to strangle legal short-term rentals (STRs). This hypocrisy exposes a truth – for some, profit trumps people.

 

The recent regulations targeting legal STRs were lauded as a victory for affordability. Yet, a closer look reveals a smokescreen. Hotels, facing competition from platforms like Airbnb, lobbied heavily for these restrictions. Here's the catch: while painting themselves as champions of long-term housing, these same hotels are proposing serviced apartments – essentially, short-term rentals under a different label.

 

Take the 129-room TownePlace Suites by Marriott, a multinational corporation building the region’s first extended stay hotel, which hotels refer to as “serviced apartments” to avoid the taint of “airbnb”. The three-storey all-suite hotel will feature studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units with fully equipped kitchens. This is blatant hypocrisy. If hotels truly prioritize tourism, wouldn't they support regulations that address Victoria's documented 2,000-room hotel shortage? Instead, they advocate for policies that remove 600 legal STRs from Victoria's downtown market, further squeezing visitor options with their oligopoly.

 

This raises a troubling question: are these regulations truly about long-term housing, or about protecting established (often multinational) hotel chains? Consider the plight of a legal STR owner in Victoria. Their 250-square-foot unit, demonstrably not suitable for a long-term tenant, languishes on the sales market at $299K for over 60 days. Meanwhile, countless other micro-studios have not been rentable either – they are not affordable to rent for many individuals at $1,900 a month and the size makes them challenging for couples to live in full time.

 

This example highlights the reality – many legal STRs wouldn't become homes or long-term rentals even if forced.

 

B.C. needs a nuanced solution. We can't ignore the tourism industry's needs, but sacrificing residents on the altar of hotel profits is unacceptable. Instead, let's focus on: increased development of purpose-built rentals: This directly addresses the long-term housing shortage. Regulation of REITs (Real estate investment trusts) which own 30-48% of rental housing and benefit from the fact that Canadian law exempts them from corporate taxes as long as profits are distributed to investors. When investors control housing stock the pressure to generate profit rises and landlords are incentivized to evict residents and raise rental prices.

 

Allow micro-condos (under 400 sq. ft.) unsuitable for long-term rentals in appropriately zoned downtown tourism areas to offer short-term rentals: They are not taking away affordable or appropriate housing. 

 

 

https://www.vicnews....-crisis-7687773

[Mike K.]

My friends with investment units at well below 400 sq ft have no problem renting them.

But $1,900 for 250 sq ft is asking too much, clearly. That unit wouldn’t last a day at $1,400/month. Why are former AirBnBs being offered for so much more than market value? Are they furnished? The op-ed doesn’t say.

[dasmo]

This thin veil of doing good is draped over many government programs. Not only this one. It’s how they manufacture consent.

[Victoria Watcher]

This is the cheapest Janion listing now, 94 days on the market:

 

 

 

 

https://www.realtor....ctoria-downtown

 

 

$290,000

 

 

320 1610 Store St
Victoria, British Columbia V8W0E3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No doubt that this has lost value, or gone up and back down.  Listed today for only $20,000 over the 2017 sale price and 94 DOM at the $290 price.  

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 08 December 2024 - 08:14 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

 

British Columbia's housing crisis is a cruel irony. We face a desperate shortage of long-term rentals, yet witness hotels lobbying to strangle legal short-term rentals (STRs). This hypocrisy exposes a truth – for some, profit trumps people.

 

The recent regulations targeting legal STRs were lauded as a victory for affordability. Yet, a closer look reveals a smokescreen. Hotels, facing competition from platforms like Airbnb, lobbied heavily for these restrictions. Here's the catch: while painting themselves as champions of long-term housing, these same hotels are proposing serviced apartments – essentially, short-term rentals under a different label.

 

Take the 129-room TownePlace Suites by Marriott, a multinational corporation building the region’s first extended stay hotel, which hotels refer to as “serviced apartments” to avoid the taint of “airbnb”. The three-storey all-suite hotel will feature studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units with fully equipped kitchens. This is blatant hypocrisy. If hotels truly prioritize tourism, wouldn't they support regulations that address Victoria's documented 2,000-room hotel shortage? Instead, they advocate for policies that remove 600 legal STRs from Victoria's downtown market, further squeezing visitor options with their oligopoly.

 

This raises a troubling question: are these regulations truly about long-term housing, or about protecting established (often multinational) hotel chains? Consider the plight of a legal STR owner in Victoria. Their 250-square-foot unit, demonstrably not suitable for a long-term tenant, languishes on the sales market at $299K for over 60 days. Meanwhile, countless other micro-studios have not been rentable either – they are not affordable to rent for many individuals at $1,900 a month and the size makes them challenging for couples to live in full time.

 

This example highlights the reality – many legal STRs wouldn't become homes or long-term rentals even if forced.

 

B.C. needs a nuanced solution. We can't ignore the tourism industry's needs, but sacrificing residents on the altar of hotel profits is unacceptable. Instead, let's focus on: increased development of purpose-built rentals: This directly addresses the long-term housing shortage. Regulation of REITs (Real estate investment trusts) which own 30-48% of rental housing and benefit from the fact that Canadian law exempts them from corporate taxes as long as profits are distributed to investors. When investors control housing stock the pressure to generate profit rises and landlords are incentivized to evict residents and raise rental prices.

 

Allow micro-condos (under 400 sq. ft.) unsuitable for long-term rentals in appropriately zoned downtown tourism areas to offer short-term rentals: They are not taking away affordable or appropriate housing. 

 

 

https://www.vicnews....-crisis-7687773

 

 

 

 

University of Victoria professor, Alzheimer's researcher, Airbnb operator, and resident of James Bay, an affluent neighbourhood of Victoria which includes the provincial legislature and Royal British Columbia Museum, Debra Sheets made an appearance in Tuesday's Vancouver Sun to complain about new legislation to reduce the impact of short-term rentals.

 

Since I hate media pieces which make people like her appear as suffering, I feel like collecting some articles together in one spot so if anyone searches for her on Google, they'll see her repeated lines.

 

Again, she is not at all new to the media as she regularly makes appearances in her fight against any legislation against her ability to protect her "investment". I should note that since she is a public servant, we know that she made CA$156,000 in 2022.

 

One of the earliest appearances she has made in the press was in 2017 when she and her Greater Victoria Short Term Rental Alliance created a GoFundMe to launch legal challenges:

 

Debra Sheets has a business licence for her STR unit in The Janion building, which lies in a transient zone.

 

She’s concerned about the licensing fee potentially being as high as $2,500, which is significantly higher than the $110 she paid this year.

 

As of today, units in this building can be found going for CA$1.1 million. If this page is any indication of how much she paid for her unit when it was renovated in 2016, she would be able to sell it for double at a minimum. I am glad to see that her unit's value was not decimated as much as she feared.

 

“I feel that’s completely and ridiculously unfair,” she said, adding that she would support a legal challenge to the fee. “I’m not doing anything illegal … that’s a lot of income to lose every year, not to mention that it’s decimated the value of my unit.”

 

 

https://cohost.org/C...is-debra-sheets

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 08 December 2024 - 08:11 AM.

[spanky123]

My friends with investment units at well below 400 sq ft have no problem renting them.

But $1,900 for 250 sq ft is asking too much, clearly. That unit wouldn’t last a day at $1,400/month. Why are former AirBnBs being offered for so much more than market value? Are they furnished? The op-ed doesn’t say.

 

In many instances, people set the rent at the rate they need to cover their costs. In the past, people relied of appreciation in prices to cover any shortfall but you can't rely on that now. 

 

When you consider, taxes, utilities, strata fees, insurance, mortgage payments, etc, you are often at $1,500+ a month for a studio even before you factor in any money in your own pocket.

[Mike K.]

In the past, people relied of appreciation in prices to cover any shortfall but you can't rely on that now.

Units will keep appreciating, just like everything else does, and always has.

Anyone who rents at a small loss today, will recoup that loss in equity, and most certainly in appreciation, but appreciation always takes some time. It’s rare that we have periods of year over year appreciation that covers transactional costs, and delivers a profit.