Saskatoon city council seeks federal funding that could change city's AirBnB, VRBO landscape
Saskatoon city council is seeking money to crack down on unlicensed short-term rentals in the city, like those on AirBnB and VRBO, amid an active moratorium on licensing certain new short-term rentals.
Last year, Ottawa created a Short-Term Rental Enforcement Fund, which was a way for communities across Canada to use federal dollars to crack down on short-term accommodations that consume rental supply and can result in fewer long-term rentals on the market.
The City of Saskatoon applied for $380,000 from the fund, expected to cover most of the costs for an enforcement program in a three-year period, with $25,000 coming from the city to cover management and supervision of the program.
Adam Clarkson, who hosts an AirBnB in Saskatoon, said the short-term rental market in the city is small and he believes short-term rentals are "such a miniscule part of the problem."
"I think it's a political move to say that cracking down on them is going to make an impact in a positive way," Clarkson said.
The potential renewed enforcement efforts come alongside an existing roadblock for some AirBnB owners in the city.
Those looking to make their rental a legitimate business and avoid the steep fines are not able to obtain a licence, unless the unit is a homestay — when the owner lives in the home where the unit is being rented — because of an active moratorium in Saskatoon.
In January 2024, Saskatoon stopped granting business licences to short-term rental properties, which provide tenancies for less than 30 days.
Under the city's Business Licence Bylaw, once the rental vacancy rate drops below three per cent it cannot permit new licences to standalone short-term rentals, which are separate residences from where the owner stays.
That includes rentals hosted on platforms like Airbnb, Vrbo, Expedia, Booking.com, and Obasa Six-Three Suites.
Clarkson would not comment about whether he has obtained a licence.
According to city council documents, there are about 230 licensed units in the city. While there is not a precise number of unlicensed units operating in the city, it said there are about 700 listings on AirBnB and 150 on VRBO.
The documents also say the city will contact property owners in violation of the bylaw to provide them a deadline to either stop operation or obtain a licence.
If they're found to be non-compliant, they could face fines up to $25,000 per day for each day the "offence" occurred, as determined by the courts.
Darren Hill, a former city councillor who has had a pair AirBnB rentals in his home for several years, said the short-term rentals generate two to three times more revenue than a long-term rental — though it's more work.
Hill says he's in support of the city's plan to crack down on short-term rentals because they "wreak havoc on the housing stock" and help further compound the shortage of rental units because they're not available on the long-term rental market.
He defended his rental situation by stating that it is a homestay rental, rather than a standalone that would take an entire apartment, condo or home off the rental market.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Global News
5 days ago
- Global News
Despite pushback, Montreal forges ahead with strict new short-term rental rules
Montreal is forging ahead with new rules banning many short-term rentals for nine months a year, hoping to alleviate a housing crunch and strike a blow in a lengthy battle against unauthorized listings. City council in March passed a new bylaw that will allow people to rent their principal residences for periods of 31 days or less only during peak tourist season, between June 10 and Sept. 10. They must also obtain a $300 permit from the city and meet previous requirements to register with the province. Full-time Airbnb units run by commercial enterprises are still allowed in parts of the city, but are restricted to a few streets and areas. Despina Sourias, a city councillor in charge of housing, said previous rules were hard to enforce because they allowed some property owners to avoid getting fined by stating a rental property was their main residence. The new rules, she said, will shift the burden of proof onto listing owners instead of inspectors. Story continues below advertisement 'Before it was like, we have to go out and catch people, we've got to roam the streets,' she said in a phone interview. Banning short-term rentals in principal residences for nine months a year makes issuing fines much easier, Sourias said. 'You don't have your permit, you get a ticket,' she said. 'If you're doing it outside the time that you're allowed to do it, you get a ticket.' The new rules are the next step in a progressive crackdown across the province that began after seven people died in a fire in an Old Montreal building in March 2023. Six of the victims had been staying in Airbnb rentals, which the mayor confirmed were not allowed in that part of the city. After the fire, the provincial government tabled new legislation requiring platforms like Airbnb to only display ads that include a tourism licence number and expiry date. The city also hired a squad of inspectors to try to crack down. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Before the new bylaw, it was easier for people to rent their main residences for short periods, such as during a vacation. That led some people to use different schemes to falsely declare a full-time rental as a principal residence, and forcing inspectors into lengthy investigations to prove otherwise, the city said. Montreal's mayor said in January that despite the provincial law, more than half of the 4,000 units on short-term rental platforms did not comply with the rules. Story continues below advertisement The new rules have received pushback from the province's tourism department, as well as from platforms such as Airbnb, who claim that they will hurt the city's economy and do little to improve housing affordability. Alex Howell, Airbnb's policy lead from Canada, called on the city to reverse what she called an 'extreme and short-sighted' rule change. 'This poorly thought-out decision will drive up hotel prices and make travel more expensive for Quebecers – nearly 140,000 of whom stayed in an Airbnb in Montreal last year – and weakens Montreal's ability to attract visitors for major events that fuel tourism throughout the year,' she said in a statement. Saif Yousif, a property manager for Park Place Properties, believes the new rules are overly restrictive. Yousif manages about 80 short-term rentals in the Montreal and Mont-Tremblant areas, including many owned by clients want to rent their homes when they're travelling. Yousif feels the existing rules were already strict enough to prevent people from falsely claiming an investment property as a principal residence. The regulation, he said 'makes it difficult for (homeowners) to take vacations or take some time off and leave the city' and is unlikely to result in units being returned to the long-term rental pool. The best way to keep rental prices down would be to build more housing, he added. Likewise, the province's tourism department said the new rules would not put an end illegal rentals or the housing crisis. Story continues below advertisement 'On the contrary, they could even worsen the situation by pushing more operators into illegality, returning Montreal to the Wild Web of before our reforms,' it said in a statement to The Canadian Press. But David Wachsmuth, the Canada Research Chair in urban governance at McGill University, believes Montreal may succeed where other cities have failed at cracking down on illegal rentals. He said platforms leave it up to cities to track down rule-breakers, which forces municipal officials to 'play detective' and figure out who's actually a principal resident and who isn't. He said enforcement will be easier under these rules, because anyone running an Airbnb outside the designated full-time rental areas can be automatically fined outside the summer season. 'Anybody who's running an Airbnb in March, if you're not on one of those very small number of corridors where you're allowed to do this (legally), it's just guaranteed that you're breaking the law,' he said. 'So that's just a really fundamental shift in how the overall process of being a short term rental host is going to interact with the laws here in Montreal.' He said most Montrealers who want to rent their principal residence would likely be doing so mostly in the summer anyways. Therefore, the rules will only inconvenience legitimate homesharers while making it much harder for full-time unauthorized rentals to turn a profit. Wachsmuth also dismisses any claims that limiting short-term rentals won't help alleviate housing pressures, saying the research shows 'beyond any possible shred of a doubt' that communities that put short-term rental rules in place see their rents rise at a slower rate than those who don't. Story continues below advertisement This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2025. This is a corrected story. A previous version incorrectly summarized comments by David Wachsmuth on the impact of short-term rental rules on rent prices.
CTV News
5 days ago
- CTV News
Despite pushback, Montreal forges ahead with strict new short-term rental rules
Fog hangs over the skyline of Montreal on Jan. 1, 2025. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes.) Montreal is forging ahead with new rules banning many short-term rentals for nine months a year, hoping to alleviate a housing crunch and strike a blow in a lengthy battle against unauthorized listings. City council in March passed a new bylaw that will allow people to rent their principal residences for periods of 31 days or less only during peak tourist season, between June 10 and Sept. 10. They must also obtain a $300 permit from the city and meet previous requirements to register with the province. Full-time Airbnb units run by commercial enterprises are still allowed in parts of the city, but are restricted to a few streets and areas. Despina Sourias, a city councillor in charge of housing, said previous rules were hard to enforce because they allowed some property owners to avoid getting fined by stating a rental property was their main residence. The new rules, she said, will shift the burden of proof onto listing owners instead of inspectors. 'Before it was like, we have to go out and catch people, we've got to roam the streets,' she said in a phone interview. Banning short-term rentals in principal residences for nine months a year makes issuing fines much easier, Sourias said. 'You don't have your permit, you get a ticket,' she said. 'If you're doing it outside the time that you're allowed to do it, you get a ticket.' The new rules are the next step in a progressive crackdown across the province that began after seven people died in a fire in an Old Montreal building in March 2023. Six of the victims had been staying in Airbnb rentals, which the mayor confirmed were not allowed in that part of the city. After the fire, the provincial government tabled new legislation requiring platforms like Airbnb to only display ads that include a tourism licence number and expiry date. The city also hired a squad of inspectors to try to crack down. Before the new bylaw, it was easier for people to rent their main residences for short periods, such as during a vacation. That led some people to use different schemes to falsely declare a full-time rental as a principal residence, forcing inspectors into lengthy investigations to prove otherwise, the city said. Montreal's mayor said in January that despite the provincial law, more than half of the 4,000 units on short-term rental platforms did not comply with the rules. The new rules have received pushback from the province's tourism department, as well as from platforms such as Airbnb, which claim that they will hurt the city's economy and do little to improve housing affordability. Alex Howell, Airbnb's policy lead from Canada, called on the city to reverse what she called an 'extreme and short-sighted' rule change. 'This poorly thought-out decision will drive up hotel prices and make travel more expensive for Quebecers – nearly 140,000 of whom stayed in an Airbnb in Montreal last year – and weaken Montreal's ability to attract visitors for major events that fuel tourism throughout the year,' she said in a statement. Saif Yousif, a property manager for Park Place Properties, believes the new rules are overly restrictive. Yousif manages about 80 short-term rentals in the Montreal and Mont-Tremblant areas, including many owned by clients who want to rent their homes when they're travelling. Yousif feels the existing rules were already strict enough to prevent people from falsely claiming an investment property as a principal residence. The regulation, he said, 'makes it difficult for (homeowners) to take vacations or take some time off and leave the city' and is unlikely to result in units being returned to the long-term rental pool. The best way to keep rental prices down would be to build more housing, he added. Likewise, the province's tourism department said the new rules would not put an end to illegal rentals or the housing crisis. 'On the contrary, they could even worsen the situation by pushing more operators into illegality, returning Montreal to the Wild Web of before our reforms,' it said in a statement to The Canadian Press. But David Wachsmuth, the Canada Research Chair in urban governance at McGill University, believes Montreal may succeed where other cities have failed at cracking down on illegal rentals. He said platforms leave it up to cities to track down rule-breakers, which forces municipal officials to 'play detective' and figure out who's actually a principal resident and who isn't. He said enforcement will be easier under these rules, because anyone running an Airbnb outside the designated full-time rental areas can be automatically fined outside the summer season. 'Anybody who's running an Airbnb in March, if you're not on one of those very small number of corridors where you're allowed to do this (legally), it's just guaranteed that you're breaking the law,' he said. 'So that's just a really fundamental shift in how the overall process of being a short-term rental host is going to interact with the laws here in Montreal.' He said that most Montrealers who want to rent out their principal residence would likely do so mostly in the summer anyway. Therefore, the rules will only inconvenience legitimate home sharers while making it much harder for full-time unauthorized rentals to turn a profit. Wachsmuth also dismisses any claims that limiting short-term rentals won't help alleviate housing pressures, saying the research shows 'beyond any possible shred of a doubt' that communities that put short-term rental rules in place see their rents rise less slowly than those who don't. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2025.
Globe and Mail
6 days ago
- Globe and Mail
Montreal pushes on with new short-term rental rules despite pushback
Montreal is forging ahead with new rules banning many short-term rentals for nine months a year, hoping to alleviate a housing crunch and strike a blow in a lengthy battle against unauthorized listings. City council in March passed a new bylaw that will allow people to rent their principal residences for periods of 31 days or less only during peak tourist season, between June 10 and Sept. 10. They must also obtain a $300 permit from the city and meet previous requirements to register with the province. Full-time Airbnb units run by commercial enterprises are still allowed in parts of the city, but are restricted to a few streets and areas. Two years after fatal fire, Montreal tightens rules on short-term rentals including Airbnb Despina Sourias, a city councillor in charge of housing, said previous rules were hard to enforce because they allowed some property owners to avoid getting fined by stating a rental property was their main residence. The new rules, she said, will shift the burden of proof onto listing owners instead of inspectors. 'Before it was like, we have to go out and catch people, we've got to roam the streets,' she said in a phone interview. Banning short-term rentals in principal residences for nine months a year makes issuing fines much easier, Sourias said. 'You don't have your permit, you get a ticket,' she said. 'If you're doing it outside the time that you're allowed to do it, you get a ticket.' The new rules are the next step in a progressive crackdown across the province that began after seven people died in a fire in an Old Montreal building in March 2023. Six of the victims had been staying in Airbnb rentals, which the mayor confirmed were not allowed in that part of the city. After the fire, the provincial government tabled new legislation requiring platforms like Airbnb to only display ads that include a tourism licence number and expiry date. The city also hired a squad of inspectors to try to crack down. Before the new bylaw, it was easier for people to rent their main residences for short periods, such as during a vacation. That led some people to use different schemes to falsely declare a full-time rental as a principal residence, and forcing inspectors into lengthy investigations to prove otherwise, the city said. Montreal's mayor said in January that despite the provincial law, more than half of the 4,000 units on short-term rental platforms did not comply with the rules. The new rules have received pushback from the province's tourism department, as well as from platforms such as Airbnb, who claim that they will hurt the city's economy and do little to improve housing affordability. Alex Howell, Airbnb's policy lead from Canada, called on the city to reverse what she called an 'extreme and short-sighted' rule change. 'This poorly thought-out decision will drive up hotel prices and make travel more expensive for Quebecers – nearly 140,000 of whom stayed in an Airbnb in Montreal last year – and weakens Montreal's ability to attract visitors for major events that fuel tourism throughout the year,' she said in a statement. The province's tourism department said the new rules would not put an end illegal rentals or the housing crisis. 'On the contrary, they could even worsen the situation by pushing more operators into illegality, returning Montreal to the Wild Web of before our reforms,' it said in a statement to The Canadian Press. But David Wachsmuth, the Canada Research Chair in urban governance at McGill University, believes Montreal may succeed where other cities have failed at cracking down on illegal rentals. He said platforms leave it up to cities to track down rule-breakers, which forces municipal officials to 'play detective' and figure out who's actually a principal resident and who isn't. He said enforcement will be easier under these rules, because anyone running an Airbnb outside the designated full-time rental areas can be automatically fined outside the summer season.
