'A very rushed proposal': Stricter short-term rental rules in Calgary spark criticism

Rule changes for short-term rentals in Calgary are drawing criticism from the companies that run them.

City council debated the changes on Tuesday during its last meeting of the year.

The new regulations would extend the definition of "short-term rental" from 30 days to cover up to 180 days.

It will also require a new business licence with fees to run them.

The initial licence fees would be $172 if it's your primary residence and $510 if it is a non-primary residence, with annual licence renewals about half that amount.

The new bylaws will also create a moratorium on new non-primary residences when the vacancy rate drops below 2.5 per cent and restrict short-term rentals in affordable housing.

The city would also look to form a short-term rental steering committee as well as explore a short-term rental property tax subclass for non-primary residences.

Airbnb calls Calgary's proposed rules the most restrictive in the country.

The company told CTV News it agrees with some of the changes, like banning them from social housing, but argues Calgary's vacancy rate is hovering around 1.4 per cent, meaning no new non-primary residence rentals could be created due to the moratorium.

"This is a very rushed proposal," said Alex Howell, the policy lead for Airbnb Canada. "These are new rules that would impact the city's economy without giving the intended benefits to the housing crisis.

"The proposed bylaw, which council intends to pass with all three readings in a single day, lacks consultation, it lacks community input, and it disregards a lot of the city's own research."

Howell notes the regulations wouldn't help with housing affordability, pointing to the University of Calgary study the city is using to guide them.

"Both the study authors and city officials have stated that there is no real relationship between the number of short-term rentals in the city and impacts on long-term rental prices here in Calgary," she said.

"I think they've gone so far as to say that short term rentals are a drop in the bucket or a dime in the bucket compared to the number of houses that are actually needed to tackle the housing crisis."

Howell added similar rules in places like Toronto, Vancouver and New York have not curbed rent increases or created availability.

Study co-author and U of C senior research associate Gillian Petit says her study stopped short of officially recommending legislation but explored possible solutions for the city that could mitigate the rise of short-term rentals amid a housing shortage.

"So really, this is about just keeping our eyes on how the city is going to enforce any regulations that they're going to bring forward and how they're going to close some regulatory gaps," Petit said.

"Right now in the city, what's happening is short-term rentals are regulated, and then long-term rentals are regulated under the Residential Tenancies Act, but any medium-term rental, so that's rentals between about 30 days and six months, have no regulations. So these rentals aren't passing fire inspections; they're not being checked by AHS for health and safety."

'It restricts homeowners': Calgary Airbnb host

Robert Leblanc is a Calgary realtor, but also a property manager for 15 short-term rental properties in the city.

He owns some of those properties as well and acts as a host on rental sites including Airbnb.

Leblanc says the new regulations would directly impact not just himself as a business owner, but also several homeowners and employees who rely significantly on the rental industry.

"It really restricts a homeowner's ability to rent out their property and you know, these are properties that they've been working their entire lives to be able to afford," he said.

"And when we're not growing out businesses, obviously our operations slow down which impacts staff that we have.

"We have full-time cleaners, we have full-time technicians and handymen, and this is going to eliminate their jobs in an economy where employment rates are at an ultimate low."

City administration does acknowledge these new regulations won't solve housing crisis, but says the bylaws are proactive in preventing other rental issues, and strike a balance on safety, community impact and enforcement.

Coun. Raj Dhaliwal says there was a perception that short-term rentals were taking housing out of the market, but this won't act as a silver bullet approach to solving the affordability crisis.

He said non-primary residences that are rented out should be charged differently.

"So, the recommendation right now makes sense to distinguish between primary and non-primary residences," Dhaliwal said.

"If you're using your primary residence to kind of earn those extra dollars to pay off your mortgage, no problem. But if you're just holding it and renting it out and using it as a short-term rental then that should be subject to different fees.

"There's talk of having a subclass under our property tax bylaw to tax them differently, so I think it's a good thing."

Coun. Sonya Sharp agrees, but wants business licences to be even higher.

"I still think the price of a license should be higher than it is, but the motion here I have is for administration to explore a subclass for short term rentals on non-primary, so we'll see what that looks like," she said.

"They won't be able to give us a tax rate for that, but this is an opportunity to level the playing field for hotels that are non-residentials. So, they would like to maybe have a level playing field in saying short term rentals aren't paying taxes and they're providing a similar service."

According to the U of C study being used by council, there are around 5,000 short-term rentals in Calgary, most of them full dwellings rather than single rooms.

It found only a quarter of the units are considered permanent listings, those which have been available for rent for several years.

The study also found 42 per cent of units were from multi-listing owners.

Late vote

Late Tuesday night, council voted unanimously to approve admin's recommended short-term rental policy tools and move into readings.

In the first reading, the motion was amended to push back the implementation date from Jan. 1, 2025, to April 1, 2025.

Coun. Sean Chu was the only one opposed to the second and third readings.

Then, in a further motion arising, Sharp pushed to explore the feasibility of applying the same tax rate that is applied to non-residential property for a short-term subclass and return to council by Q2 2025 with a report.

That passed 12-2, with councillors Jasmine Mian and Andre Chabot opposed.