We the Undersigned,

Understand that the Toronto MLS department is posing to implement new regulations to Short Term Operators. The change that this petition is referring to is that of making all Short Term rentals 180 days across the board.

Originally an entire unit could be rented out for 180 days while a room in a principal residence could be rented out for an unlimited amount of days. Airbnb was created as a home-sharing experience. This by law made sense because many Canadian Citizens could be out of the country for 6 months and utilize their homes for the period of time that they were away. 

Alternatively, a room, if available in a home, will always be available.  People who list their rooms for short term are not running businesses, they are doing it to supplement their income, pay mortgages and are considered blue color, working Canadian class. These rooms do not take away from the rental market as these rooms could alternatively only be provided to students and nothing else as they are not made for long term rental. The problem with providing rooms to students is that you would also be responsible for feeding them. Many Canadians cannot take on this responsibility, therefore, short term rentals make sense in these situations. 

Furthermore to this proposal, it has been suggested that this 180 rule will apply to each registration notwithstanding how many rooms you have available. The current regulation allows up to three rooms to be rented in your primary residence for unlimited amount of days. What this means if it is implemented, is that whoever rents out one room will lose 50% of their income, hosts of two rooms would make 25% of what they did before its implementation and for those who have a bed and breakfast style of accommodations that have a third room available could only rent each room on the average of two months a year. 

The city mls enforcers suggested that there are too many operators that are going against regulations and that it isn’t possible to inspect them all, therefore, by evening it all out, it would solve that problem.  That is, in the least unfair to all the operators that run their listings according to the regulations and rely heavily on the income they receive to pay for the continuous increase in their mortgage rates.  It is understood that the job of the enforcers is to detect which operators are taking advantage of the system and penalties have been put in place to penalize those operators. 

This petition is to voice our disapproval of this change. We do not agree with its implementation as being allowed to short term our rooms for just 6 months will take away from this income supplement for the remaining 6 months, making it very difficult for most of these individuals to successfully make their mortgage payments. The city, instead should look to alternative means to detect which homes do not follow the current bylaw. According to reported documentation, it is not at all difficult to detect these properties. The city is provided with all necessary information from Short Term Rental Companies like Airbnb and for our part, we will support the city in educating our fellow short term operators on these regulations.

 

Background

With growing interest rates, Canadians are paying double the mortgages that they were paying just two years ago. The implementation of this bylaw will only create another problem; those that do have accommodation will end up defaulting on their mortgages as STR income is used to pay for the increased mortgage rates. This is why so few have actually defaulted in their mortgage payments, they have managed to supplement their income with the Airbnb income. .

Only about 5% of those listings that exist today could be assumed to be non-regulatory, the remaining would never be listed for long term as they are not long term rental property types of accommodation. The claim that STR properties will help housing long term accommodation is not accurate. . Nor would they be interested in giving their properties as regular tenancies as the laws and regulations allow for long term tenants not to pay for rent and live in a property for free while the owner has to continue paying their mortgage despite this fact. If the laws and regulations were fairer to landlords maybe some of these hosts wouldn’t go through the trouble of having an Airbnb listing, which is a hassle in a way, you must be on top of your messages, troubleshoot problems that arise, have someone on call, keep a tight housekeeping and provide all essentials.  Who wouldn’t prefer to just hand over their keys and sleep easy? But unfortunately, landlords of this province rarely sleep.

Studies inform us that there are currently approximately 18,000 airbnb units in Toronto. 75% of these units are for long term, meaning for over 28 consecutive days. Only 25% of these listings are for short term which is approximately 4,500 and most of those are rooms.

Airbnb has not created a housing crisis, mass immigration with poor project management has created this crisis. We just do not have the infrastructure for it. Instead, Airbnb has brought more tourists into the country, making accommodation while traveling less expensive and easier. Furthermore, it has made cross provincial travel possible because it is easier to find accommodation anywhere you would like to visit.  It has also provided temporary homes to countless newcomers in transition to finding their more permanent homes

According to Canada Statistics, Ontario received approximately 185,000 new immigrants in 2022 with most of those landing in Toronto, 160,000 according to the publishings.  Did the government ever consider that it lacks the infrastructure to allow for such mass immigration? If we assume that about 3 people live per household, over 53,000 rental units would be needed to accommodate all these people. Were these units available when deciding to allow for this mass immigration? How fair is it to come to home owners and ask them to give up their homes and savings to new immigration and how far would 4,500 listings go towards these needs? 

According to more Canadian data, there are approximately 6,000,000 people in Toronto to date. About half of this population is considered to be renters. At 3 people per household, that would mean that there are 1,000,000 rental units in the city. Taking into consideration that there are 18,000 airbnb units in Toronto, that makes up .02% of this market. How does it make sense to blame the current rental crisis on Airbnb?

As far as the Hotel industry is concerned, it was published that Toronto occupancy rate for 2022 was at an ultimate high of 81% since the pandemic and expected to be higher in 2023. Airbnb offers a completely different experience to what hotels offer. Those travelers that require wake up calls, dry cleaning, room service, etc will continue going to hotels. Airbnb travelers are for those individuals or families looking for a different, more homely experience. It also offers alternative accommodation for people who would prefer not stay in hotels anyway and has allowed some individuals the ability to travel that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.

Furthermore, short-term rental homeowners hire cleaning services, landscapers, contractors, and many others to help maintain their homes. These individuals and companies have come to rely on the income they receive through these services. Their income will also be affected by this change.  

Therefore, Airbnb has offered a cheaper alternative for accommodation while traveling, a form of supplement income for some households, income that is taxed by the government that also collects additional tax from this setup, all the while by NOT affecting the Housing industry or the Hotel industry as pointed out earlier.

Greater Toronto Area Short-Term Rental Social Community