Proposed Airbnb rules hit the right balance, mayor says
Regulations aimed at tackling issues arising from growth of short-term rental market
City staff proposals to create a licensing and registration system for Airbnb-style rentals in Toronto strike a balance that addresses many issues arising from the growing phenomenon, Mayor John Tory says.
The proposed regulations, released Monday, would prohibit short-term rentals that are not a person’s main residence.
Residents would be allowed to rent out part or all of their home if they are registered with the city, pay a fee and provide emergency and safety information to guests. Short-term rentals would also be permitted in legal secondary suites.
The proposed regulations will be discussed at Tory’s executive committee meeting next week. Staff are expected to report back to council with final recommendations later this year.
The measures allow the shortterm, web-based rental market to continue, while limiting how it operates, in an effort to minimize disruption to residents living next to dwellings where there’s a “constant shuffling of people in and out,” Tory said Monday.
The draft regulations also crack down on absentee landlords and push badly needed long-term rental units back onto the market, Tory told a news conference.
The mayor also defended a proposal to charge Airbnb hosts an accommodation tax of up to 10 per cent, while hotels would be subject to a tax of 4 per cent. Tory noted hotels are already paying commercial property taxes substantially higher than residential taxes.
Alex Dagg, Airbnb’s public policy manager, released a statement saying the company welcomes Toron- to’s move “toward regulation (of ) home-sharing.”
“We are reviewing the city’s report in detail and look forward to providing our response and feedback to executive committee,” her statement said.
Thorben Wieditz, a spokesperson with Fairbnb, a pro-regulation coalition formed by the hotel workers’ union, called the proposals “promising” and suggested they have the potential to be “the cutting-edge of home-sharing regulations in North America.”
One Toronto resident said the regulations are long overdue.
“About time! I live in Maple Leaf Square. It has now become a threestar hotel for one-star guests. Madness. It’s our home,” Christopher Brown wrote in an email to the Star.
Budget travellers have embraced the burgeoning short-term rental market in Toronto and in cities around the world. But the phenomenon has also raised concerns about the potential impact on neighbourhoods, housing affordability, tourism and taxation.
Under Toronto’s measures, online rental platforms would only be allowed to list properties that have a city-issued registration number, which must appear in any online listing.