Calgary city council to debate short-term rental regulations before holiday break

The City of Calgary council is set to debate new short-term rental (STR) regulations before the holiday break, but Airbnb says more consultation is needed.

The regulations include restricting STRs in homes considered affordable housing and limiting STR stays from 30 days to up to 180 days.

It also includes a moratorium, pausing new STRs that aren’t someone’s primary residence if the vacancy rate drops below 2.5 per cent.

Licence fees for STRs would be $172 for a primary residence and $510 for a non-primary residence. Renewing the latter would be $260.

The regulations also look at licensing STR digital platforms like Airbnb to allow more cooperation toward enforcement.

Alex Howell, the policy lead with Airbnb Canada, tells 660 NewsRadio that a moratorium isn’t the answer, and wants the city to consult with the STR industry.

“That has an immediate impact,” she said.

“There is a natural turnover in short-term rental hosts year over year, people move, they decide to have family move in, whatever it may be, and if council removes the ability for new hosts to get licences, there will be an overall drop in available accommodations as existing hosts move off the platform and can’t be replaced.”

She cites the University of Calgary’s final report to council, saying, “STRs are a dime in the bucket compared to the amount of houses needed to tackle the housing crisis.”

The initial study notes that hosts who have more than one listing operate a “disproportionally large percentage of listings,” with 11 per cent of all hosts operating nearly 41 per cent of all listings. It also noted that 80 per cent of those multi-listing hosts are individuals, while 16 per cent are property managers. Those hold nearly 30 per cent of all multi-list listings and also hold a larger share of the revenue.

The final report notes revenue went from $1 million in January 2017, to $22 million in July 2023 and $11 million in September that same year.

It also says there are around 5,000 STR listings from September 2023, with around 876 STR listings being considered permanent, 15 per cent of all listings from Airbnb and VRBO/HomeAway in July 2023. Just about 2,400 listings, or 42 per cent, are operated by multi-list hosts. The most commercialized make up 270 listings.

Lastly, the final report says there are three policy objectives behind STR regulation, which are managing local impacts, managing guest experience, and managing city impacts.

When it comes to managing local impacts, the report says, “While restricting STRs will likely reduce STR listings, reduce LTR rents, and reduce housing prices it will not solve the problem of housing affordability on its own, but it has the potential to be part of the solution.”

Meanwhile, Howell says Airbnb drove $1.1 billion and supported 11,000 jobs in Alberta in 2023, with many being in Calgary. She says the moratorium will impact the spending of those using the services.

According to the city, the licensing would acknowledge their “commercial nature,” differentiating them from primary residence STRs and having better data collection on those markets.

When it comes to the moratorium, the city says this would be a tool to encourage more rental units to become long-term options.

Howell agrees that purpose-built housing units shouldn’t be used for STRs and agrees with the restrictions in this regard, but is asking council to “slow down” before implementing them.

“There has not been enough consultation on these specific proposals. There hasn’t been quite enough work done to make sure there’s not going to be unintended consequences, and the industry here can continue to support itself and support Calgarians,” she said.

“So we would just say, let’s slow down, let’s make sure any changes being done are being done right, and we’re happy to work with the city on anything to that end.”

Other topics expected to come up are how to handle the province’s proposed Green Line alignment, the renaming of a train station, and responsible pet sales.

With files from Tiffany Goodwein