Burnaby proposes short-term rental rules capping number of days, guests allowed

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BURNABY (NEWS 1130) — Burnaby is moving forward with a plan to tightly regulate short-term rentals in the city.

Coun. Sav Dhaliwal explains the move is part of the larger goal to protect rental stock in the city, add more units, and increase affordability.

“Are we losing ground on our rental stock? Are we working towards making sure there’s enough places for people to stay who work here? Who live here?”he asks.

According to Dhaliwal, prospects for renters in the city have improved amid the pandemic because the demand for short-term rentals has plummeted.

“Over the last three months, we know that there was a significant drop in the number of properties being booked by Airbnb, and that resulted in a little bit more vacancy for our renters. The rents have come down — not huge — but rents dropped from pre-COVID-19 days,” he says.

“If we didn’t know this before, we certainly know now that Airbnb does have an effect on our rental stock, and COVID-19 has made it very clear.”

Dhaliwal hopes a bylaw will be in place by the end of 2020.

‘We need some balance to it with regards to how much, and how often’

Council voted to move forward with a proposed framework on July 6. There is still time for the proposal to change through consultation and debate, but it spells out a number of specific rules.

Short-term rentals would be capped at 90 days per year for those renting out rooms in homes, condos or apartments.

“People should be able to rent to a certain extent a room here and there,” Dhaliwal says.

“We felt 90 nights is a fair amount — that’s almost every weekend of the year. But it can’t be too lucrative to the point that suddenly you don’t think there’s a need to rent it to a long-term renter because you can make enough money from [short-term rental] and therefore don’t bother renting to the locals.”

Anyone wanting to rent out an entire residence would be limited to 28 days out of the year.

Other restrictions include a limit on the number of guests. The maximum allowed would be six, if those people are related in some way, while “unrelated guests” would be capped at four.

Short-term rentals would be limited to “primary residences” as a way to discourage people from buying or acquiring property solely for the purposes of renting it out on Airbnb or another platform. Tenants are forbidden from offering short-term rentals, even with permission from the landlord or building owner.

Dhaliwal says council is not trying to eliminate short-term rentals entirely.

“We need some balance to it with regards to how much, and how often, and what rules and regulations exist so neighbours and the city can manage.”

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