The City of B次元官网网址 is once again putting out the welcome mat for short-term rentals.聽
Residents will be able to list their primary residence, basement suite, or carriage home for rental to tourists on platforms such as Airbnb under a relaxation of regulations supported Monday by city council.聽
Councillors voted to bring B次元官网网址B次元官网网址 rules into alignment with provincial regulations citing two key changes in B次元官网网址B次元官网网址 rental apartment landscape over the past year.聽
Hundreds of new purpose-built long-term rentals have been constructed and the apartment vacancy rate has tripled to the third highest-level in Canada.聽
Both developments undermined the main rationale for restricting short-term rentals - the desire to make as much housing stock as possible available only to long-term residents.
Councillors said they hoped the relaxation of restrictions would give a boost to B次元官网网址B次元官网网址 economy, which is heavily dependent on tourism, after what was widely perceived to have been a shaky summer for visitor-spending in 2024.
鈥淕reat news that we鈥檙e at least making our rules here on a level playing field with everybody else in the province,鈥 said Coun. Ron Cannan.聽
鈥淚 think itB次元官网网址 wise to align with the (provincial) so people don鈥檛 have to figure out what B次元官网网址 is doing differently from the province,鈥 said Coun. Loyal Wooldridge. 鈥淎nd I think we鈥檙e seeing some positive signs that our (apartment) vacancy rate should be improving over time.鈥
The city had previously licensed 427 short-term rentals before a ban on new applications went into effect. Many more people will welcome the opportunity to rent out their principal residence, basement suite, or carriage house as an important source of revenue, Coun. Gord Lovegrove said.聽
鈥淢an, I鈥檝e received a lot of feedback from folks who need a mortgage helper,鈥 Lovegrove said. 鈥淚 think this is appropriate and I鈥檓 happy to see this come forward.鈥
Mayor Tom Dyas predicted the number of legally-permitted short-term rentals would likely rise from 427 to around 1,000 once the city again begins accepting applications.聽
A couple years ago, there were also an estimated 1,500 properties being rented out illegally on a short-term basis, but greater enforcement measures taken by both the city and the province have dramatically reduced that number.
The illegal short-term rentals were often poorly managed, triggering many complaints from neighboring property owners about rowdy tourist behaviour.聽
鈥淭hey were basically making life havoc for our residents on a weekend-to-weekend basis because it was like a hotel operating beside them,鈥 Dyas said.
A restriction still applies against renting out secondary properties, typically a condo bought primarily as an investment, to tourists. However, that too could change next year, if the cityB次元官网网址 apartment vacancy rate stays above three per cent, per provincial regulations.聽