12-06-2017, 10:41 AM
Cities can regulate short-term rentals but really enforcement is quite difficult unless they work directly with companies like AirBNB and HomeAway. I use AirBNB fairly regularly and I know short-term rentals are disallowed in some of the cities I have stayed in (or only allowed in primary residences) -- and yet there are tons of listings on AirBNB.
AirBNB can indeed take some rental units off the market, but I expect most of these are not at the affordable end of the spectrum: most of the listings for complete apartments, whether in the region or elsewhere, tend to be for fairly nice units, not basic/affordable ones.
I believe the biggest impact is in condo buildings where investor unit owners might choose to do short-term rentals rather than renting to long-term tenants. Many condo buildings' declarations and/or bylaws forbid this so they attempt to prevent this practice (a little bit easier than for a city, but still a challenge) but some buildings do not. And declarations are really, really hard to change. So recently one such building in Toronto signed an agreement with AirBNB regulating activity in the building: AirBNB will report all listings, provide insurance and provide a percentage of the revenue to the building to help with maintenance.
http://www.lashcondolaw.com/condo-corpor...m-rentals/
AirBNB can indeed take some rental units off the market, but I expect most of these are not at the affordable end of the spectrum: most of the listings for complete apartments, whether in the region or elsewhere, tend to be for fairly nice units, not basic/affordable ones.
I believe the biggest impact is in condo buildings where investor unit owners might choose to do short-term rentals rather than renting to long-term tenants. Many condo buildings' declarations and/or bylaws forbid this so they attempt to prevent this practice (a little bit easier than for a city, but still a challenge) but some buildings do not. And declarations are really, really hard to change. So recently one such building in Toronto signed an agreement with AirBNB regulating activity in the building: AirBNB will report all listings, provide insurance and provide a percentage of the revenue to the building to help with maintenance.
http://www.lashcondolaw.com/condo-corpor...m-rentals/