Short-term rental owners and tourism operators are stepping up calls for urgent changes to restrictions set by provincial legislation introduced in May 2024 in a bid to create more long-term housing.
Stakeholders gathered at the Basil and Mint restaurant in KovuliBritish Columbia on Wednesday evening at a meeting hosted by Airbnb.
“We need to come to a conclusion and overcome this problem together,” said Chris Petty, owner of Basil and Mint. “I hope we get our tourists back. We get our friends back.”
Petty and others present at the meeting called the restrictions devastating to the local tourism and business sectors.
“I have half the staff now that I did before,” Petty said.
Because Kelowna's vacancy rate will remain above the required 3 per cent rate for two years in a row to allow the province to consider easing restrictions, city council is poised to request a partial exemption to allow some buildings to operate on a short-term basis again.
However, even if approved, these changes will not come into force until the fall of 2026.
“It's a whole summer that people are missing. Another one. Three in a row,” Petty said. “It's devastating.”
That's why they want the province to speed up the release not only ahead of the summer, but also ahead of major events coming to Kelowna, including the BC Summer Games and the Memorial Cup.
“We're going to refuse. Why keep us waiting?” said Dale Holmes, owner of Holmes Boutique Escape Vacations. short-term rental management company.
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Holmes, who also owns two short-term rental apartments of his own, said that before the restrictions, higher education students could rent apartments in commercial buildings during the school year and then rent them out to tourists.
“We occupy them for eight months for students, and the students get beautiful properties, million-dollar properties, about $1,000 a night each, so it becomes subsidized housing,” Holmes said. “And then within four months it goes into the economy, which is tourism dollars.”
However, Holmes said, because these apartments are not allowed for short-term rentals, many of them are empty.
“They're empty for four months. Students don't need a year's rent,” Holmes said.
The city has until the end of March to formally request the waiver, but even if approved, those relaxed rules won't be implemented until November.
Conservative MLA for Kelowna-Mission Gavin Dew also attended Wednesday's meeting.
He told the group he has introduced an amendment to the Short-Term Rentals Act, which he expects to be debated in the Legislature in the next week or so.
The amendment comes because these relaxed rules will be allowed in May rather than November.
“For the province to spend months mulling it over and finally making a decision by Nov. 1 when we lose another tourism season is just ridiculous,” Dew said.
In an email to Global News, while the Department of Housing and Community Services did not say whether it would consider expediting the exemption, it said “this period provides hosts and visitors with a notice period to adjust to any changes to the rules regarding where short-term rentals are permitted.”
“They are trying to strangle these people again and for what purpose,” Holmes said.
Provincial regulations limit short-term rentals to only primary residences, including secondary suites or carriage houses on the property.
By the end of 2024, the vacancy rate in Kelowna reached 3.8 per cent.
That figure is currently estimated at more than 5 percent, according to the city's latest report.
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