Hundreds of short-term rentals are still operating illegally in Victoria after new regulations came into effect in May, according to the B.C. Ministry of Housing.
Information shared with the province by short-term-rental platforms shows the 1,697 listings in Victoria exceeds the number of short-term rental business licences issued by the city by about 900 listings, the ministry said.
Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto said the city’s numbers show an estimated 560 unlicensed, “technically illegal” units.
Ministry spokesperson Tasha Schollen said some duplication might exist in the data because hosts could advertise a single property across multiple platforms.
After the ministry shared its data with local governments in early July, about 1,000 notices of non-compliance were issued across B.C. and 400 take-down requests were sent to hosting platforms, Schollen said.
“The data received confirms why provincial legislation was required to crack down on illegal short-term rentals,” she said, adding that platforms can now be compelled to take down listings violating provincial and local laws.
About half the 22,405 short-term rental listings reviewed by the ministry across B.C. did not have the required business licences, she said in a statement.
Alto said Victoria gets about 100 complaints from the public every month about illegal short-term rentals, all of which are investigated.
Short-term rentals allowed in the city are limited to an entire principal dwelling unit that’s occasionally rented out — for example while the occupant is on vacation — or up to two bedrooms in a principal dwelling with shared kitchen and living spaces.
Victoria residents cannot rent out a secondary or garden suite on a short-term basis, under city rules.
Alto said the city has received about 200 applications for short-term rental licences so far this year, 83 of which were approved. The rest were either withdrawn or are under review.
Alto said she would have expected the province to identify 650 or 700 illegal units, not 900. “The only thing I can think of is that the city is operating under a part of legislation that defines STRs as being anything you rent under 30 days, but the province’s definition has it under 90 days,” she said.
The mayor said when the city first started delving into this area a few years ago, it estimated there were around 1,600 short-term rental units.
Alto told reporters in an unrelated news conference Tuesday she hopes the city will be able to transfer a number of ongoing short-term rental investigations to the Housing Ministry, noting the city’s investigators have about 90 cases on their plate.
“We are carrying a pretty heavy load here,” she said. “When the province actually brings to bear its enforcement division — which we expect later this year — that will help a lot.”
City spokesperson Colleen Mycroft said there are more property investigations waiting to be assigned than officers available.
The city has been able to recover the costs of enforcement and legal actions on short-term rentals, she said in a statement.
In one case involving three property management companies and 120 unlicensed short-term rental units, the city was able to contribute $17,000 to its affordable-housing capital grants fund after recouping legal costs, Mycroft said.
Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon said the province currently has an enforcement division of eight and has set funding aside to hire up to 15 full-time officers. “We do have the capacity to hire more people, but at this stage we don’t see the need in the short term.”
A provincial database where hosts will be required to register, expected to launch this year or in early 2025, will make it easier for governments to differentiate between principal residences and investment properties, he said.
“Once our provincial-wide database is launched, it will take a lot of the work that local governments have been doing individually away.”
Platforms hosting short-term rental listings have been co-operative with the new rules so far, he said.
Under the new legislation, corporations that don’t eliminate unlicensed listings could face fines up to $10,000 per day, while administrative penalties for hosts breaking the rules range from $500 to $5,000 a day for each infraction.
Kahlon said the fines are meant to free up more housing, not to generate revenue for the government.
“Every single day I hear from people who are struggling to find a place to rent,” he said. “Our goal here is to see more housing come back to people in our communities.”
>>> To comment on this article, write a letter to the editor: [email protected]
