The owner of an Airbnb in Nelson doesn’t think new legislation to help local governments regulate short-term rental units will be successful.
The new regulations will be implemented in stages throughout next year, with the goal of increasing the number of long-term rental units in the market by returning short-term rental units to the market for long-term tenants as a tool to combat the provincial housing shortage.
But Stephen Harris doubts that will be the result.
“I can tell you with certainty that myself and dozens of other short-term rental operators in Nelson have zero interest in being long-term landlords,” he said.
“A good long-term tenant is fantastic. A bad long-term tenant can be devastating. The way the Residential Tenancy Act is structured, it puts my home and my mortgage at risk. Hoping that short-term rentals will be converted to long-term ones isn’t going to solve the issue.”
Under the new legislation, municipalities with more than 10,000 people will be granted further enforcement tools for local short-term rental bylaws with increased fines and data requirements for rental platforms to provide local governments. The province said the measures will be used as a tool for local governments to better track, enforce and regulate short-term rentals and ensure compliance.
Nelson adopted its own municipal bylaw in 2017 when concerns surrounding short-term rentals negatively impacting the local housing market were raised.
Harris protested the city’s initial bylaw proposal when it was first tabled in 2016.
Harris explained when council initially discussed prohibiting short-term rentals altogether, he and other hosts protested the idea and worked with the city to develop a bylaw that kept such rentals on the market but with appropriate restrictions.
Under the municipal bylaw, short-term rentals have a maximum unit cap set per block. Rules are also in place regulating guest parking, guest occupancy and registries, renewals and noise complaints. Short-term rental hosts are also restricted to operating units only within their primary dwelling area and must provide proof of residence and insurance when submitting an application.
Harris says the need for regulations made sense, but the initial proposal would have been damaging to the community’s tourism industry.
“The initial proposal from the city just banned Airbnb and other short-term rentals outright. That was going to be a problem, and there was recognition that it wasn’t going to work. Short-term rentals are an important part of accommodation for visitors to the town. They hit a niche market and provide options for a large category of our visitors.”
Although he understands the motivation, Harris thinks the provincial legislation’s goals are misguided.
He says eliminating short-term units to open long-term rental spaces is unlikely to happen and suggests updating the tenancy act to incentivize long-term rentals as a sustainable and low-risk source of income would be a better solution.
