Addressing the housing supply shortage is a pressing policy issue for any level of government in Canada. Our inability to produce housing fast enough to accommodate new Canadians has dominated recent headlines. Scarcity drives up costs, so the argument goes, and makes housing less attainable and affordable to those in need of long-term accommodation.

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 […]

“The report underscores the need for the Province of B.C. to implement a province-wide short-term rental registry and platform accountability measures to save tenants billions in rent and address housing supply, attainability, and affordability,” the study said.

A team of researchers has crunched the numbers and estimates that British Columbia’s renters are paying roughly 20 per cent more than they otherwise would have due to the impact of short-term rentals.

Bylaw Services removed 787 listings from Airbnb in the first year of Ottawa’s short-term rental bylaw, which only allows property owners to rent out their primary homes.

There are no silver bullets when it comes to housing affordability in Canada. But there are still some live rounds lying around, if governments can find the stomach to actually pull the metaphorical trigger. Ideas like taxing capital gains on people’s principal residences are probably off the table, if only because the politics would be […]

The number of options for Airbnb users looking for a weekend jaunt in New York City has dwindled by 15,000 listings.

Ricochet and Pivot are investigating Airbnb and short-term rentals.We recently launched a groundbreaking project that will tell the story of how short-term rentals have impacted Canada’s housing market. We’re hiring reporters across Canada to investigate this summer, but we need your help to make this critical public-interest journalism happen. Please click here to make a […]

City Councillor Lenny Zhou says he’s working with staff to figure out just how many illegal short-term rental units are operating in Vancouver.