COALITION PROPOSES TEMPLATE TO REGULATE AIRBNB IN TORONTO
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FRIDAY, March 3, 2017
COALITION PROPOSES TEMPLATE TO REGULATE AIRBNB IN TORONTO
Stop “ghost hotels,” but fair rules can permit true homesharing without threatening housing stock, Coalition says in white paper
Ordinary renters and homebuyers are getting “Squeezed Out” of key neighborhoods in Toronto by short-term rentals sold online by commercial investors. That’s the conclusion of a new white paper released by Fairbnb.ca today, a coalition calling for fair regulation of Airbnb and other short-term rental companies in Canada. Fairbnb.ca members released the 50-page study – called Squeezed Out: Airbnb’s Commercialization of Short-term Rentals in Toronto at Toronto City Hall, just days before city officials are expected to begin consultations on new regulations to confront the mutation of the homesharing business.
The paper pointedly does not call for a ban on Airbnb businesses. Instead, it calls for rules “to return Airbnb to its homesharing roots,” as Thorben Wieditz puts it. “What’s really changed in the last few years that’s a threat to neighborhoods and housing stock is investors who use Airbnb to create so-called ‘ghost hotels’ in units that were meant for permanent residents,” he said.
The Coalition proposes that any new City of Toronto by-law (and any by-law in other cities) should only allow “one host, one listing,” with proof that the property is the host’s principal and primary residence.
Further, hosts should have to provide criminal background, ownership and insurance checks, and prove they are compliant with apartment and/or condo board rules for their unit. Hosts could then register for an annual City of Toronto permit that will trigger a home inspection for safety.
Online vendors would only be permitted to market units that had a valid homesharing permit number, and they would be required to provide data to assist the City in enforcing these rules.
These proposals – and others in the white paper – all have precedents in other jurisdictions that have already regulated the short-term rental sector.
Working from data collected by short-term rental market expert Tom Slee, the white paper notes that multi-unit owners on Airbnb now produce more than 50% of Airbnb’s revenue in the Toronto area. This means that Airbnb’s fastest-growing business in its largest Canadian market is marketing units that do not have a permanent resident associated with them, taking units out of Toronto’s limited housing stock and increasing the odds of disruptive visitor use of these units in the process.
“Given a choice between short-term rentals on the one hand, or offering stable long-term housing on the other, too many landlords are choosing the quick buck. Airbnb and its competitors are making that choice too easy, and our tight housing market can’t afford that kind of thinking anymore,” said Geordie Dent of the Federation of Metro Tenants’ Associations. “As the report explains, landlords can make more money renting short-term for as little as 60 days a year than they would make renting the same units to full-time residents.”
The full report is available here.
