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Currently, BC has no system to accurately identify the number or type of housing units in the short-term rental market. That's why the BC Greens are calling for a two-pronged approach to improve the industry: Data gathering and sharing, and bylaw enforcement.
Even in municipalities with existing bylaws and business license programs, hundreds if not thousands of units listed on these sites are unlicensed.
According to Independent watchdog Inside Airbnb, there are just under 6,000 listings in Vancouver alone with 82% of them being entire homes or apartments. And almost 30% of those are unlicensed.
We know that the Province is working hard to increase supply, and has promised to introduce legislation in the fall to allow for density zoning and legal secondary suites – but without platform accountability and provincial funding and support to enforce municipal bylaws, there is a very real risk that as new homes come online, many will become short-term rentals, rather than homes for people.
By signing the BC Greens petition, you're calling on the BC NDP government to:
- Introduce legislation that establishes a provincial registry of short-term rentals and enables data sharing between local governments, the province, and rental platforms.
- increase short-term rental platform accountability by ensuring they only accept listings with a valid provincial registry number or valid local government license.
- Authorize Regional Districts to issue business licenses.
- Support compliance and enforcement by:
- Offering immediate funding supports for local governments so that they can enforce their existing bylaws.
- Simplify ticketing procedures.
- Expand options to compel payment of unpaid fines.
- Increase allowable fines for non-compliance.
