Toronto City Council adopts motion requiring short-term rentals ‘play by the rules’

Toronto City Council passed a motion Thursday proposing that short-term rental platforms, including Airbnb, deslist thousands of houses and condos being used as so-called ‘ghost hotels.’

According to a January 31st, 2019 tweet published by Spadina-Fort York councillor Joe Cressy, Toronto City Council voted 21-1 to adopt a motion proposing that Airbnb and other short-term rental platforms “voluntarily abide by rules approved by City Council in 2017 permitting short-term rentals, while they are currently under appeal at the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal.”

With an overwhelming 21-1 vote Toronto City Council has formally called on Airbnb to play by the rules. Thousands of houses & condos have been removed from the housing market by investors & are being used as ghost hotels. Toronto has now formally called on Airbnb to de-list them. pic.twitter.com/KknpjvsjYO

— Joe Cressy (@joe_cressy) January 31, 2019

“Thousands of houses and condos have been removed from the housing market by investors and are being used as ghost hotels,” wrote Cressy, in the same January 31st tweet.

“Toronto has now formally called on Airbnb to de-list them.”

The motion was proposed by Cressy and second by Toronto Centre councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam.

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Toronto City Council previously approved legislation governing the operation of short-term rentals on December 8th, 2017.

In addition to mandating that only primary residents of principal residences can list their dwellings, the City’s short-term rental rules require that primary residents register their short-term rental dwelling on an online database, pay an annual fee of $50 and adhere to a rule stating that residences only be listed for 28 consecutive dasy and no more than 180 days-per-year.

However, an appeal before the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT) set for August 26th, 2019 means that the City’s short-term rental laws won’t come into force until the LPAT delivers its decision.

In the interim, Fairbnb — a coalition comprised of hotels groups, property owners, property renters and “other concerned citizens” — published a January 9th, 2019 report estimating that “If Toronto’s short-term rental rules were enforced today, Airbnb would have to remove 8,241 non-compliant listings.”

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“Ever more residential properties are being permanently removed from Toronto’s housing supply and rented to tourists via short-term rental platforms like Airbnb,” reads an excerpt from Fairbnb’s Addressing Toronto’s Housing Crisis? report.

“This trend removes enough housing stock and significantly worsens Toronto’s already critical housing supply problem.”

According to CBC News, Fairbnb’s report was part of the basis for Joe Cressy’s motion.

MobileSyrup has reached out to Airbnb and Fairbnb for comment. This story will be updated with a response.

Source: Joe Cressy Twitter

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