B.C. Airbnb listings on province’s radar: premier

The B.C. government is taking aim at getting more Airbnbs off the short-term rental market.

Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon says Victoria is working with municipalities to come up with policies to help people who are in need of housing.

“When we have people that … can’t find a place to rent or live, and we have people living in RVs, that’s a sign that we have to get the most out of our housing stock as possible in the short-term. So that’s one of the pieces that we’re going to be working on,” he said at the Surrey Board of Trade Friday.

He says although short-term rentals are important for tourism, those in the community are struggling to find places to live.

“I’m hearing more and more from [the] tourism-dependent community, [who says], ‘you know, it’s great it grew [but] now all of a sudden, we have nowhere for workers to live,” he said.

Kahlon says getting property owners to stop putting their units up for rent on platforms like Airbnb can be done, pointing to B.C.’s Speculation and Vacancy Tax as just one example of action taken.

“People said ‘well, it’s a tax, this and that,’ but the reality is is that we got 20,000 units back on the market with that one policy. People who owned a home who had left it empty for whatever reason, 20,000 units just in Metro Vancouver that came back into the market,” the minister explained.

“We’re going to have to look at policy measures that will bring more housing supply back to people, and that’s one of the examples. At the same time, we’re going to have to scale up and build. And then when people are struggling in encampments, we’re going to have to look at modular.”

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He says modular housing can be built quickly, and can really help.

Earlier in the month the B.C. government introduced a multibillion-dollar plan to construct more homes as quickly as possible in an attempt to build its way out of the housing crisis.

The so-called Homes for People plan starts with a $4-billion investment over three years and commits to $12 billion over a decade with incentives to build, laws to curb speculation and financial help for renters and homeowners.

This is in addition to the plan the NDP government introduced in 2018, that it says has built more than 74,000 homes towards a promise of 114,000 units over a decade.

The proposal focuses on building more townhomes, duplexes and triplexes through zoning changes, offering forgivable loans for homeowners to build and rent secondary suites at below market rates, and constructing thousands of homes for renters, Indigenous Peoples and students.

More homes will be built near public transit and the government will launch a plan to use public land for construction of affordable homes.

The government says it will bring in a flipping tax to discourage speculation, beef up enforcement of short-term rentals, and streamline and modernize the permit process to cut costs and speed up approvals.

It adds the plan will strengthen “enforcement of short-term rentals” to ensure homes go to those who need them.