The report reveals that STR regulations – particularly principal residence restrictions implemented by municipalities before the introduction of the Short-term Rental Accommodations Act of Bill 35 – have decreased rents by 5.7%, saving B.C. renters more than $600 million in 2023 alone.

Key Findings:

STR regulations are proving effective: Current STR regulations across Ontario already save tenant households more than $1 billion annually.
Principal residence restrictions work: Municipalities with principal residence restrictions experienced rent increases that were 3.3% lower, saving tenants an average of $50 per month.
Province-wide potential savings: Expanding principal residence requirements across Ontario could save renters an additional $572 million annually.

Globe and Mail,  August 4, 2024 Statistics Canada’s report last week, “Short-term Rentals in the Canadian Housing Market,” reveals that by 2023, 107,266 housing units had been converted to commercial short-term rental (STR), rendering them unavailable for long-term occupancy. Comparing this number to Canada’s current total housing stock of 15,495,361 units, Statscan suggests that a seemingly […]

The number of short-term rentals in Canada has grown sharply since 2017, with units that could be considered usable for long-term housing growing even faster, a new Statistics Canada report said on Tuesday.

According to the report, the total number of short-term rental units in Canada grew by 60 per cent between 2017 and 2023. The number of units considered ‘potential long-term dwellings’ (PLTDs) – or units that could be long-term housing – rose by 80 per cent.

Nearly half of the 22,405 short-term rental listings reviewed by the B.C. Ministry of Housing were found to be operating illegally, according to a preliminary analysis of newly released data from short-term rental platforms that the province says it will use to step up enforcement of new restrictions.

“More supply of housing is needed, and the measures we’re presenting today are to provide more supply so that the working middle class does not have to leave the city because they can’t afford housing,” Collboni said. “This measure will not change the situation from one day to the next. These problems take time. But with this measure we are marking a turning point.”

The City of Toronto is increasing registration fees and bolstering the vetting of short-term rental hosts in an effort to make it harder to evade the rules.

The building is splattered with different shades of paint. Its doors and windows are covered with posters. The message is as clear as the graffiti sprayed across its walls: the crowd who gathered around the building on Wednesday doesn’t want Airbnbs in their neighbourhood and to them, it is a brick-and-glass symbol of the housing crisis.

As Toronto tries to clamp down on short-term rentals to maximize housing supply in the midst of a housing crisis, a cottage industry of short-term rental hosting companies continue to help investment property owners evade the city’s rules, a Star investigation has found.

Airbnb has long had a housing-devouring reputation. Reports about how Airbnb has turned housing units planned, approved, and built as residential into quasi-hotel inventory—so-called ghost hotels—have been abundant across Canada. Every tenant knows that finding a decent place to live is not only extremely difficult, but that once attained, it is also horrendously expensive. Seeing […]