City of Toronto restricts AirBnB hosts
Toronto City Council has passed new rules to crack down on short-term rental services such as Airbnb that will restrict listings to principal residences and ban homeowners from listing secondary suites such as basement apartments. Fear of impact on affordable housing market trumped arguments for property owners’ rights in the council vote.
Airbnb, by far the largest player in the short-term rental market, has 10,000-plus Toronto hosts, about 700 of whom rent out secondary suites, that will become illegal when regulations take effect — the most common form being a separate basement complete with a kitchen and bathroom. It's unclear what will happen with those units once the new rules take effect. Operators could easily de-convert them, and simply operate them as a room in their home. Or, they may decide to put them on the long-term rental market.
Short-term rental hosts will pay the city a $50-a-year fee and face a rental maximum of three rooms for an unlimited number of days, or a whole home for no more than 180 nights per year. Short-term booking agencies will each pay the city a $5,000 license fee and $1 a night per booking, and have policies to deal with noisy, disruptive tenants.
The centerpiece provision of Toronto's proposed regulatory regime, first unveiled by city staff in June, would ban people from listing an apartment or a house for a short-term rental – fewer than 28 days – unless it is their principal residence.
Secondary suites – which must have their own entrance, kitchen, and bathroom – would not be allowed to be listed on Airbnb, unless there was a tenant listing the unit and it was the tenant's primary residence.
Toronto's not the first city to introduce new rules to a sector that had previously been unregulated. Vancouver recently approved new short-term rental rules that also ban the short-term rentals of secondary suites.
Homeowners or renters will be limited to offering their primary residence, which can include up to three rooms or the entire house. Those offering their entire home can only do so 180 days per calendar year.
