Among a sea of provincial housing changes come stricter yet messy rules on short-term vacation rentals.
Though the goal of the legislation is to get more homes on the rental market, trying to make people be landlords, when they don’t actually want to be landlords, only puts more renters into bad situations.
Coming into effect on May 1, the B.C. provincial government is limiting short-term rentals to primary residences, plus one secondary suite or coach home.
Squamish’s short-term rental rules are more limiting, only allowing short-term rentals to occur in primary residences unless they have one of the 30 temporary use permits available for residents to use on secondary suites or coach houses.
The provincial government says there are over 16,000 homes that are used for the majority of the year as a short-term rental. The rules are meant to encourage property owners to rent their homes long-term, rather than as short-term vacation rentals.
But, who’s to say owners will even put the house on the rental market?
Instead, they may just gobble the yearly property tax and use the home for personal use.
That leaves Squamish renters no further ahead.
So while this legislation is meant to improve the rental market—its shortsightedness may end up barely making a dent in a problem that the province let get out of control in the first place.
In the simplest terms, there are two ways to get someone to do something: incentives and punishments.
With this legislation, the province is effectively attempting to punish people in hopes that they will become landlords.
In my eyes, owners are unlikely to make such an adjustment. Even if they did, I wouldn’t want to rent from someone who may be feeling forced to rent out a home. It doesn’t sound like a good way to kick off a relationship, does it?
Instead, the province should focus on incentives to list homes on the long-term rental market. Better yet, offer better incentives for the general population to stay renters while B.C. attempts to play catch-up in its housing stock in other ways.
What’s stopping the province from empowering renters and giving them a leg-up instead?
Everyone wants safety, long-term security, and affordability when it comes to having a roof over their head.
Equally important, no one wants to enter into a lousy relationship simply because they were told they had to.
