City councillor tabling motion to clamp down on short-term rentals in Edmonton
Posted October 19, 2023 3:26 pm.
Last Updated October 20, 2023 9:37 am.
Holly’s Homes provides short-term rentals near hospitals and healthcare facilities for families to stay at while they receive life-saving medical treatment.
It’s estimated Edmonton has over 4 thousand short-term rental properties. Now one Edmonton city councillor wants to clamp down on the private business.
“Some of these treatments that people are coming for, they aren’t a day or two. They aren’t a week or two,” said Holly Jespersen, owner of Holly’s Homes.
“I really had this epiphany of realizing that there were a lot of people out there like me who weren’t travelling for vacations, who weren’t travelling for a fun visit, but rather it was something that was a lot more fearful.”
Councillor Michael Janz wants to limit property owners from renting out their short-term rentals for no more than 90 days in a year. He also wants a requirement that property owners remain on the premises.
READ MORE: Advocates calling for changes to limit short term rental properties in Edmonton
The Alberta Hotel & Lodging Association echoed the calls from Jespersen and asked the city to impose stricter regulations.
“I think it’s predictable that if homes and condominiums can only be used for principal residents, and not rented out on a nightly basis like ghost hotels, that inventory is going to come back in the housing stock, and homeowners and renters who want to live and work in Edmonton will be able to afford it again,” said Tracy Douglas-Blowers, President & CEO of Alberta Hotel & Lodging Association.
“I think it would be very difficult to enforce a specific number of nights, I think what’s more important is limiting short-term rentals to the owner’s principal residents, which is what they were originally intended for.”
Douglas-Blowers added hotels have never been concerned with short-term rentals.
“One of the biggest impacts to hotels is something you might not think of off the top. We found in a lot of communities, the shortage of housing has made it difficult for hotels to attract the workers they need because they just can’t find affordable housing,” said Douglas-Blowers.
“Hotels are not afraid of competition, and they are not looking to regulate homeowners who are renting a room in their own home, or renting out their home while they are away. But true home-sharing happens in the owners’ principal residents, and what started as home-sharing has created a new class of investment that has converted residential units into ghost hotels that evade the cost of doing business, they create additional demands on municipal services like policing and bylaw, and waste management.”
Jespersen worries Councillor Janz’s proposal to clamp down on short-term rentals would hurt those families coming to Edmonton for medical treatment
“Often, these families have loved ones who are immunocompromised, and that is not an option for them. They can not be in these situations where there are a bunch of other people,” said Jesperson.
CityNews reached out to AirBnB for a statement and was told, “We understand an underproduction of new housing has leaders across the country grappling with how to alleviate housing costs, but targeting short-term rental Hosts – the majority of which share just one home – will not solve this complex issue.
“We hope Edmonton leaders will work with us and local Hosts on a sensible framework for short-term rental regulations that protect the benefits home sharing provides to local residents and economies, just as we’ve done with other governments around the world.”
Janz’s motion is scheduled to be brought to city council next week.
