The B.C. Green Party is calling on the provincial government to regulate the short-term rental industry, a move it says is necessary to ease the housing crisis and improve safety for renters and hosts.

“We’re in a housing crisis and we need to understand what are the aspects of that housing crisis, how much are short-term rentals contributing to that,” B.C. Green party leader Sonia Furstenau told CBC News Tuesday.

“And in order to have that understanding, we need the data on how many short-term rentals there are in any given community.”

The party is calling on the government to introduce legislation that establishes a provincial registry of short-term rentals and enables data sharing between local governments, the province, and rental platforms.

Furstenau says the province has no system to accurately identify the number or type of housing units in the short-term rental market.

The Greens also want the province to offer immediate funding support for local governments so they can enforce their existing short-term rental bylaws, saying short-term rentals have particularly harmed the housing market on the Southern Gulf Islands, where many long-term properties are being turned into short-term and vacation rentals.

Families leaving ‘in droves’

While vacation rental platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO bring an economic boon to tourism hotspots such as the Gulf Islands, they also deplete the housing stock for residents and workers, says Mairi Welman, chair of the Salt Spring Housing Council.

The council is an alliance of organizations involved in housing and housing solutions on Salt Spring Island, the largest of the Gulf Islands.

“We are losing hospital workers, we’re losing teachers, we’re losing trades people. Our businesses are impacted,” Welman said.

“Young families in particular are leaving the island in droves because they just can’t find anywhere to live.”

Many places are being rented out to people for the winter as long term-tenants, Welman said. But around March, places are freed up for short-term rentals until about October. 

Welman wants the province’ speculation tax to be expanded to Salt Spring Island.

The province has said it aims to target urban areas — including most municipalities in the Lower Mainland and southern Vancouver Island, Kelowna and Nanaimo — with near-zero vacancy rates with the tax to help with affordability struggles.

“It’s one of the tools that we need along with regulation of short-term vacation rentals to really get a handle on the issue here now,” Welman said.

B.C. working on provincial regulations

Other provinces are beginning to crack down on Airbnbs and short-term rentals.

Last month, Newfoundland and Labrador announced that unlicensed accommodations such as Airbnbs must be registered with the provincial government by March 2024 and follow the same municipal and provincial regulations as established tourism operators.

While B.C. is responsible for certain regulations — largely around whether Airbnb hosts pay PST — most oversight of short-term rentals is done by local governments.

That means the issuing of business licences and appropriate bylaw enforcement is handled by cities and municipalities. 

In a statement Tuesday, the ministry of housing didn’t address questions about the provincial registry raised by the Greens but said “it is clear that local governments need additional tools to address the challenges they face around compliance and enforcement of local bylaws governing short-term rentals.”

The ministry said it is actively developing legislation that will address concerns around short-term rentals.

While it varies by jurisdiction, many B.C. communities have bylaws restricting short-term rental listings.

Vancouver, Kelowna and Victoria — among others — restrict short-term rentals to units where owners can prove either they or someone else lives on the property as a primary residence, with possible fines for infractions.