“It is a market that has developed and now the government wants to axe it.”
That’s the response from local realtor Bob Quinlan in relation to the government’s plan to crack down on short-term rentals in BC.
Under the proposed legislation, those living in communities like Prince George will still be able to rent out their home or a basement suite through Airbnb, but they will no longer be allowed to buy multiple properties for short-term rentals.
Quinlan also took aim at Premier David Eby’s comment where he stated: “Short-term rentals have gotten out of control.”
“The only thing that would be out of control is if they are missing out on some taxation, which some will abide by, some will argue and others will just go underground. Again, I don’t think we are going to have a bunch of landlords that are going to be willing to move to long-term tenancy.”
While the legislation looks good on paper, Quinlan doesn’t think it will deter enough people from the short-term rental market.
“I don’t think it’s going to reduce the short-term rentals. Because the people that I have talked who have ample short-term rentals, they love it – whether it be individual rooms and I have used them myself. We also have families who have gone to a town and stayed at some house, which have elaborately offered covered parking and swimming pools making it a nice place to stay.”
“I don’t know how the province is going to monitor this. The people power they are going to use along with the time effort and costs. That is going to be another government oversight.”
Quinlan added popular rental accommodation sites like Airbnb, Vrbo, Flipkey, and Booking.com have added another layer to the real estate sector – progress that has been made possible due to major technological advancements.
“It’s helped introduce a new component to the real estate industry, which is short-term rentals and that’s has been allowed to do that without the commitment of long-term tenants. What they do is there is a lot of monitoring, they are hands-on and the reason they are doing this is because we have a market. We have people who have families, groups, or are employed that are going to a town in a safe area into a house and they will have all sorts of amenities and accommodations rather than going through the difficulty of a hotel.”
“It is a market that has developed and now the government wants to axe it.”
Yesterday (Monday), BC Housing Minister Ravi Khalon noted there are approximately 16,000 homes in the province being taken away from the long-term market – this follows a 20% spike in short-term listings over the past 12 months.
In a statement, the City of PG said it does not have a short-term rental bylaw and will await information and instruction from the Province prior to taking any actions.
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