And this is not even central. Hopefully they all get their fingers badly burned when rates rise, this tax comes in and equity drops.
I'm very disappointed to hear this. Quebec is one of the last places in the Western world where rentiers have a hard time.
Also for people saying these are "for a few weekends".
Many AirBnb are not "a few weekends" they are a second home bought / mortgaged for the express purpose of permanently letting in out on airbnb and not paying tax.
Airbnb sucks as a client for so many reasons but this article is not providing any evidence whatsoever. Articles like these existed well before Airbnb existed. Quebec has been doing poorly when it comes to new constructions for decades now and we're feeling it more and more each year.
If opposition to AirBNB in Montreal is mainly coming from locals being upset about the excess of tourists rather than the deficiency of rental vacancies, then I stand corrected.
What about the cities where Airbnb skirts the regulation and zoning and makes it a hell for people living there? What about Airbnb filing a lawsuit against cities when city wants an occupancy tax? If Airbnb was so serious about helping hosts pay their rent, it would only allow one unit per person/owner to be listed on the platform and honour the day limit imposed by some cities. You and I both know it very well that Airbnb is nothing but a glorified hotel now. There are studies out there that nicer neighbourhoods of the city where Airbnbs tend to concentrate have seen more increase in rent compared to other neighbourhoods.
I really liked, in fact love the idea of Airbnb if it functioned the way it was supposed to be. But all it has done in desirable cities (speaking of Toronto in my case) is take units off the market for long term renters who actually live and work in the city, thus contributing to increase in rental prices and make it tougher for people to buy their first unit since people are investing money into buying x+1st property to Airbnb in it. I'll appreciate it if you actually reply to this post, and i'm willing to discuss it further.
Considering the outrageous prices charged by motels in every city I've been (up to Chicoutimi) and even by road side motels near nowhere, I'm not surprised :-/
>Business groups like Montreal’s Bed and Breakfast Association have been pushing for the government to crackdown on home rentals for years.
Come to Montreal! Our AirBnB listings peaked at about 0.025% of all apartments in 2018. If you still genuinely believe AirBnB is the problem where you live now.
I've read the other AirBnB threads on here discussing the externalities. And I still think the cities would be better off with AirBnB than without it.
The opportunities for property owners to profit as well as providing tourism/business visitors with $40 rooms is massive.
It's opening up a huge new bnb industry, provides a large flow of new revenue for tourism businesses in the cities, greatly expands the amount of tourists/business visitors who can afford to visit.
I'm curious which of the externalities you think can't be addressed by property owners? For example, they can have a no-airbnb policy in the rental agreements. Or liability safety waivers. Or security policies to limit flow of non-tenants. Or handled via disputes between property owners or police such as sound violations.
Besides, the incentives mentioned in the article are a) the market incumbents "Montreal’s Bed and Breakfast Association" want protection and b) the government wants to protect existing tax revenue/regulation fines.
At this point, it's not about externalities. It's about protecting current revenue streams. While ignoring the potential for far greater tax revenue and social benefit.
Eh, I'm a bit of a centrist with respect to AirBnb. It should be taxed, but there are advantages. This guy bought right when AirBnb was first starting and long before any of the displacement concerns that started ravaging cities. It's fair to complain about the impact that AirBnb can have, but it's also a bit rich to call these mom and pop owners leachers.
Isn't it obvious? People buy appartements in nice city centers only to rent them on AirBnb, causing all kinds of disruptions (local shops turn into tourist shops, etc.) and reducing the number of flats for locals. This is exactly what is happening in my neighborhood (France). It's terrible.
Not sure why that was down voted: I mean the goal of the 60% tax measure is to offer places to rent for locals, AirBnB doesn't solve that, it makes it worse...
First of all, appreciate the level headed discussion and some very sound points that you bring.
I dug through insideairbnb more and it's actually 12,374 (65%) units that are listed as entire unit in Toronto. That absolutely is a very significant amount of units. Only about 7k of the listings are either shared room/private room.
> Lets say anyone renting out their unit for less than half a year wouldn't have put the unit on the rental market anyways
See, that's a valid point though in Canada it is difficult to get a mortgage and there are people now buying a second unit to treat as an airbnb property and generate income. Chances are that if the unit is sitting idle for > 90 days and < 180 days, people might be forced to sell it. Sure not everyone but there will be units that will come to the market.
You say it's negligible but you have to remember that we have one of the lowest vacancy rates.
Airbnbs have destroyed the housing market here and recently the hosts have had to switch to long term rentals... Bringing relief temporarily, but they will be right back to their old ways as soon as this Pandemic is over.
1. That's a poor argument and completely irrelevant. There's a massive difference between short term and long term lets. AirBnB has more short term rentals available than long term ones in the entire country. That's a problem even if it's a 'subet' of all available properties.
2. Oh they pay a little in tax. Not the same as depriving locals of places to live near where they work affordably, and pricing all but the highest earners out of a home in general. Not to mention it pushes locals further and further out of the areas near jobs, and even then it's more and more expensive. Longer commutes, higher rates, it's all a net negative on the actual residents of a city. Nobody benefits but the entitled tourists and the rich landlords, who are insulated enough by their money to not see or care about the societal harm they cause.
Vancouver taxes owners that have unoccupied units, and foreign buyers, the owner doesn't need to live in the place. I fully agree with the article. Having seennthe inside of buildings that allow AirBnBs, and the tire tracks leading up to the door with a keypad. I spoke to one person who was able to identify the Airbnb units based on the noise levels on adjacent floors. It's fine to incentivise owner's renting their place long term, or an extra room, but not buying up places to rent on AirBnB. Real bed and breakfasts don't even do that.
The city is still ahead on taxes. The biggest complaint being lodged against the AirBnB's is they're keeping housing values high and pricing people out of the market. If the AirBnB's were to go away then the local housing market would collapse - along with the property tax revenue associated with it. That's if the naysayers can be believed that AirBnB is having that dramatic of an effect on local housing costs.
There were multiple studies from McGill and UBC on that subject, and I cite those numbers from memory. I read them back then and it's striking how low those numbers are.
There were totally 73K active AirBNB listings in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal areas combined between May 1, 2017 and April 30, 2018.
Dived that on total number of houses and apartments and you are in the sub percentage category.
Those are pre pandemic numbers, Airbnb has declined since then because of variety of factors like COVID, additional taxes and outright bans is most condo buildings.
High-level ideals are all fun, but this ignores the facts on the ground that people are getting evicted right now for no other reason than short-term rentals (that is: AirBnB).
So even if what you say is correct – I don't know enough about the situation in Canada to judge that – then that doesn't really matter because it's pretty clear short-term rentals such as AirBnB add a lot of extra pressure, with all sorts of effects as described in the article.
Very weak evidence presented in the article. Airbnb is surely a factor in rental price increases, but if it were in fact a leading causative factor, how come municipalities that ban airbnb do not see rental prices drop materially?
The focus clearly needs to be put on adding substantial supply, and in Canada at least, reigning in the demand from new immigration.
http://insideairbnb.com/montreal/?neighbourhood=C%C3%B4te-de...
And this is not even central. Hopefully they all get their fingers badly burned when rates rise, this tax comes in and equity drops.
I'm very disappointed to hear this. Quebec is one of the last places in the Western world where rentiers have a hard time.
Also for people saying these are "for a few weekends".
Many AirBnb are not "a few weekends" they are a second home bought / mortgaged for the express purpose of permanently letting in out on airbnb and not paying tax.
Here you go: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-airbnb-law-not...
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