(by Margot Grant)
At the middle of this month, Airbnb listed four bachelor suites on the Sunshine Coast, 47 one-bedroom suites and cottages, 57 two-bedroom rentals, 23 three-bedroom houses and four houses with four or more bedrooms. That is a total of 135 available units on Airbnb alone.
At the same time, Sunshine Coast Craigslist had ads for rentals on a long-term basis: 11 one-bedroom suites and cottages, 17 two-bedroom units, ten three-bedroom houses, and four houses with four bedrooms. The total of available long-term rentals on Craigslist was 41.
For the long-term rentals on Craigslist, the average rent for a one-bedroom suite or cottage was $1,115. For a two-bedroom, it was $1,697; for a three-bedroom house, $2,097. A four-bedroom house would rent for an average amount of $2,316.
Is there a relationship between lack of long-term housing on the Coast and short-term rentals like Airbnb?
Gibsons councillor Silas White recently said on Facebook that in his opinion there is no direct relationship.
“If a local government is able to limit short-term rentals, can we expect to thereby automatically create spaces for people who are homeless? Unfortunately we can’t. These are private accommodations and the owners might sooner charge high rent or not rent them out at all than offer them at rates affordable to residents who are homeless,” he wrote.
Maybe so. But people can lose their living quarters to Airbnb.
“Karen,” the working mother with three kids who was forced to live in a filthy trailer and thought she was going to be homeless at the end of this month, told The Coast Clarion she had lost good accommodation in Roberts Creek to Airbnb. (Since the article was published, she has had several offers of housing.)
Caren Cameron, who anticipates being homeless when she retires, lost her last good accommodation in Sechelt to Airbnb.
Gibsons director of planning Andre Boel said recently that for many homeowners, there’s a big upside to short-term vacation renting: it provides them with additional income. “Also, bringing in more tourists does support our local economy. We have to recognize that part of our economy is tourism.”
The town does not regulate short-term rentals other than requesting that property owners have a business licence. There are no special requirements for the licence.
Unlicensed hosts can incur a fine of $200 per day. Until now, no fines have been imposed, Boel said this week. “We contact these hosts and they either apply for a licence or disappear,” he said. ‘There have been no problems.”
In Sechelt, short-term rentals are permitted but owners must provide a $1,000 deposit when they apply for a business licence. They also have to ensure there is parking at the site.
Earlier this year, SCRD senior planner David Rafael voiced misgivings about short-term rentals on the Sunshine Coast. “There is a growing concern over the possible impact short-term vacation rentals have on residential rental supply and housing affordability,” he wrote in a staff report in February this year. “It is not known what the actual impact is and information is not available to quantify this. However, an impact appears evident based on information from other jurisdictions, such as the City of Vancouver, and the press,” Rafael wrote.
In the coming months, the SCRD planning and community development committee will be conducting information sessions for community feedback on short-term rentals and Airbnb.
The Town of Gibsons invites written comments from its own residents and wants to co-ordinate with the SCRD. “Ideally, there should be a short-term rental policy for the entire Coast,” Boel said this week.
Towns and cities all over the world have tried in different ways to deal with short-term rentals, and specifically with Airbnb.
In Richmond, B.C., residents are not allowed to rent out an entire dwelling, a suite, a coach house or a laneway house for 30 days or less. Only a single room in a home can be rented short-term to a maximum of two people at a time. Violators are fined $1,000 per day per offence.
Earlier this year, Richmond planned on regulating and licensing short-term rentals following staff recommendations such a plan would be more practical than an outright ban. However, council unanimously voted against the recommendations in the face of opposition from the public.
Chicago has levelled a four-per cent surcharge against homeowners using Airbnb and other short-term rental sites. Last month, the city announced that it will use $1 million raised from these fees to help house a hundred homeless families.
The New York state legislature has approved what could be the strictest anti-Airbnb law in the United States, prohibiting both landlords and tenants from listing short-term apartment rentals on home-sharing sites. The new law has a penalty of up to $1,000 for the first violation, $5,000 for the second violation, and $7,500 for subsequent violations.
New York City has a serious housing shortage. There are indications the law has not stopped temporary rentals.
In Austin, Texas, city council has outlawed all future short-term rentals in residential areas.
In Miami Beach, properties can no longer be rented out for periods shorter than six months and a day, with the exception of commercial zones.
Violations carry fines of up to $20,000 for the first violation. That amount doubles, then triples, and keeps going up for repeat violators. The city is considering a bill to fine condo boards turning a blind eye to these rentals. The bylaw officers have the power, along with police, to vacate properties in some cases and, after repeat violations, have water and power cut to the property.
After San Francisco made it clear it was going to curtail Airbnb, the company limited its hosts in the city to only one property listing at a time. But critics say many hosts now list these properties on other short-term rental sites.
Berlin, Germany, has officially banned short-stay vacation rentals. In a city where affordable housing is hard to come by, the feeling was that Airbnb and similar platforms were hogging too much space, taking what could be well over 10,000 homes off the regular rental market. Landlords or tenants (but not guests) face fines of up to $150,000.
Although the law has not eradicated Berlin’s vacation rental market, it seems to have halted its exponential growth. Enforcement has been a problem. Suspected hosts must receive two caution letters, which they have the right to appeal, before they’re finally hit with a court summons. The process takes one to two years.
Barcelona, Spain has announced it will fine Airbnb and other vacation rental firms $90,000 if they break a bylaw that prohibits homes from being advertised for short-term rentals without a licence. The licence must be displayed on the online advertisements. If the firms continue to refuse to regulate their users the fine will jump to $900,000.
The SCRD expects to have a report ready in the third quarter.
Written with files from affordable housing consultant Lee Ann Johnson.
I don’t think we’re talking about the homeless who live in “tents” here. We’re talking about those who work in the very places that earn the tourism dollars who can’t find a place to live and for whatever reason haven’t bought their own home. This is, or is becoming, more of a retirement community. There has to be places to rent long term. Airbnb is becoming like an invasive weed. It needs to be controlled somewhat.
I view the SCRD consultation on this to be an empty gesture. How long will it take and what will come of it? Will it free up any rental units? Is that even an implicit intention of the exercise? Another wrinkle in the over-all situation is the fact that, as recently reported locally, more than 50 per cent of properties on the Coast are owned by non-residents. That includes an unknown number–possibly a sizeable proportion–who come up on holidays, so their properties aren’t available for long-term rental in any case. It’s not surprising that they’re taking advantage of the short-term rental income potential of their temporarily vacant homes. Unless such owners are breaking local bylaws, penalizing them won’t help the long-term rental shortage. Banning short-term rentals, or even trying to seriously curtail them, is politically impossible. But I would support an effort by local governments to reach out to those absentee owners who use services like AirBnB, but who never come here, to reconsider making long-term space available. Surely long-term rental is, over the long haul, more lucrative than occasional short-term. That might free up some units. But that’s only a small part of the answer. We need other solutions.
Silas White seems out-of-touch as to who the homeless are. Perhaps he has an idea of homeless people as being only those on welfare or with mental illnesses or substance abuse problems. While such vulnerable folks may still make up the bulk of the homeless population the demographic is changing in scary ways. Not long ago anyone with a fulltime job or on a pension didn’t have to worry about affording a halfway decent home. Now, more and more mainstream people have these worries. We should all be concerned. When working people can’t afford to live in a community who is going to be available to serve us in retail outlets, in our doctors’ and dentists’ offices, etc.? Already employers are having trouble finding people, not because people don’t need jobs, but because they can’t afford to live here. This is a serious issue that all levels of government need to commit to solving A.S.A.P.
Silas White sounds very secure in his opinions and in his own living situation. I’ve lived here since 1989, renting at least 12 places from Garden Bay to Langdale, and owning three properties along the way. I’ve lived here long enough to observe the changes. My profession makes me attractive to would-be landlords and, in most cases, I could simply make a phone call and have leased rental accommodation by the end of the day. Upon the completion of the sale of my current home, I’ll be returning to the world of renting again, which I’ve never had a problem with. In fact, in some ways and in some markets, I prefer renting to owning. But now things are very different. Now we have rental “open houses” with scheduled viewing times, bidding wars, and families advertising themselves on social media, desperate for the most basic accommodation. The prices and lack of availability are obscene. This brings us back to Mr. White, who thinks that there’s nothing at all wrong with houses sitting mainly empty for long periods of time. This is very different from somebody purchasing a car and not driving it. Basic living conditions are an expectation – indeed an entitlement – in a country like ours. Airbnb has made a lot of money for a lot of homeowners, but it has amplified the housing crisis we are experiencing here. I’ll be fine, even if I end up paying far more than is reasonable. But there are hundreds of people here on the Coast who are not fine, and they will continue to suffer because of politicians focusing their concerns in the wrong direction. It’s time for them to act.
If you have ever rented your home or part thereof for a long term rental you probably have had at least one very negative experience or know someone who has. The tenancy regulations favour the tenant. Our family has had losses in the thousands of dollars over the years but the bad experience and financial loss associated with it is hard to shake when it occurred on your own property. That place is often called home and is meant to be a positive safe place. We choose not to put our living situation in jeporidy any more and if we rent it is only for a short term with a definite end date. We can be a transition rental which is not ideal but it’s something. If there where some sort or sanction control against short term rentals we would just not rent at all. Our transition or temporary worker accommodation would not be available and that would make things even harder. So please do not be so quick to blame Airbnb. There is not one affordale housing unit included in the George Hotel condominium development. Hopefully policies can change to seize this type of obvious opportunity in the future.