Vacation rentals a threat to housing, councillors worry

Protecting Victoria’s already limited housing stock should be top of mind as city staff develop new policies and regulations governing vacation rentals, councillors agree.

Councillors this week directed staff to develop options for policy guidelines and regulations that would “prohibit the use of units of property zoned as residential for the primary purpose of providing commercial accommodation.”

They also directed staff to advise the province that policies for short-term vacation rentals should be consistent with industry standards for hotel taxes.

Coun. Ben Isitt said he thinks arrangements such as those made through Airbnb, which allows people to rent rooms or entire homes to visitors, can be supported “as long as it doesn’t take a unit of housing out of the housing supply.”

But, he said, housing that is zoned residential should be used that way. “So a condominium unit that’s dedicated 100 per cent of the time to Airbnb would not be allowed,” Isitt said. Same for basement suite.

Coun. Jeremy Loveday said under the direction given to staff, people could still rent out a room if they were away for a weekend or for even a couple of weeks.

“I’m comfortable with this as a way of moving forward,” he said.

Zoning bylaws in Victoria allow short-term vacation rentals, which are classed as transient accommodation for the temporary accommodation of visitors and include vacation rentals and B&Bs.

City staff say Victoria has about 27,000 rental-housing units and a vacancy rate of 0.6 per cent. If all the estimated short-term vacation rentals found their way back into the rental market, the vacancy rate would increase to between 1.2 and 1.7 per cent.

But director of sustainable development Jonathan Tinney said it’s a nuanced equation.

“Victoria is a city that people travel to periodically and seasonally,” he said. “When they aren’t here, a number of those [vacation] units are available for rental.”

Tinney said policies relating to owner occupancy could be examined, but would mean rezoning a number of properties.

“My view, anyway, isn’t that this is a significant contributor to a lack of housing availability,” he said, estimating the city has up to 300 short-term vacation rentals. “At this time, it’s not feeling as if that was an overwhelming demand on the supply of housing within the city.”

Coun. Pam Madoff said her main interest in having staff look at vacation rentals is “absolutely” their impact on housing availability.

“I certainly see it as a significant issue when we have a zero per cent vacancy rate, basically.”