Amid a tight rental market, the Calgary city council is set to vote on new rules to regulate short-term rentals.
The regulations include restricting short-term rentals in homes considered affordable housing, and limiting short-term rental stays to up to 180 days.
It also includes a moratorium on new short-term rentals that isn’t someone’s primary residence if the vacancy rate drops below 2.5 per cent.
The regulations also look at licensing short-term rental digital platforms like Air BnB to allow more cooperation towards enforcement.
This follows a unanimous vote by council in 2022 to work with the University of Calgary to conduct a study on the issue.
The study found there are around 5,000 short-term rentals in the city.
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Mayor Jyoti Gondek says many of the short-term rentals are not seasonal and are around the Stampede.
“Now that we know a little bit more about the landscape, and we know that this isn’t even one per cent of the total housing in the city, we can rest assured that this won’t make a massive impact on the housing shortage, but anything we can do to move the needle a little bit, we can look at,” she said.
Ward 3 Coun. Jasmine Mian says commissioning the study was important to understand the short-term rental situation across the country.
“I think we’re striking a balance, and I think we’re going to have the best working rental regulations in the country,” she said.
B.C. cracked down on short-term rentals in Vancouver to free up housing for long-term rentals, with regulations taking effect in May.
Mian also says the moratorium isn’t going to apply to Calgarians who want a short-term rental in their primary residence.
“If you want to use our residence that way and you follow the rules, you can do it,” she said.
“But what it is meant to do is dissuade people that do live in different provinces from purchasing Calgary real estate with the explicit intention of just putting it on the market here, when they could be providing it for the long term when we have such a low vacancy rate.”
The city is also looking at restricting short-term rentals in homes deemed affordable housing and
The city is also looking at a property tax subclass for short-term rentals that are not primary residences
Council will debate the changes later this month.