The District of North Vancouver is taking another run at legalizing and regulating short-term rentals like Airbnb and VRBO.
District council came within a couple votes of clamping down on STRs in 2023 but stopped short when the province announced its own rules intended to curtail vacation accommodations in favour of long-term ones.
Despite not being permitted, there were 920 active listings in the district in October last year, according to staff – about three per cent of the municipality’s entire housing stock. Of those, 92 per cent were in single-family homes and 88 per cent were for the entire home (as opposed to just a room within someone’s residence).
Under the proposed bylaw before district council on March 3, property owners could apply for one municipal business licence allowing them to accept short-term guests in either their principal residence or a secondary suite on the same property, like a basement apartment or coach house. That would bring the district into alignment with the District of West Vancouver’s rules for short-term rentals but not the City of North Vancouver, which currently allows up to two licences for an owner’s principal residence in addition to a secondary suite – the maximum allowed by the province.
The bylaw sets a maximum stay of 28 nights for a maximum of six guests.
Beyond the $340-per-year municipal licence, hosts will also have to register with the province by May 1. After June 1, existing hosts who have not gone through the regulatory hoops will have their listings pulled off of sites like Airbnb and VRBO, staff said. Guests will be subject to three per cent tax that the district will direct toward affordable housing initiatives.
While the higher prices that short-term rentals fetch and the flexibility they offer hosts may incentivize some owners to put their secondary suites on the short-term rental market, council members acknowledged, there are other benefits to the tourism industry, as well as people who are staying in the area for short-term contract work, and families who need personal access to their own secondary suites at different times in the year and mortgage helpers at other times.
There was consensus among council members that legalization and regulation was the way to go. The only issue before council was whether to allow one licence per property or two. The majority felt one was enough to balance the interests of property owners and the wider community.
Mayor Mike Little said he continues to have concerns about the commodification of housing – particularly large companies buying up single-family homes and operating them as de facto hotels in residential neighbourhoods. But he said there is room for some short-term rentals in the district.
“I do worry about the potential impact on long-term rentals in our community. We saw in COVID that there was actually a return of quite a number of units onto the market for long-term rental, and that’s something we definitely still want to see take place in our community. But I recognize this is a good option to have into the mix as well, so long as it doesn’t become dominant to the point that it is not economically viable for us to have long-term rentals in our community,” he said, adding that it falls to district council to approve more purpose-built rentals.
Coun. Catherine Pope said she believed the proposed bylaw would be a net positive for renters.
“I am very pleased we’re moving forward with regulating short term rentals. We have a housing crisis, and need more long-term rentals to open up. And I think we’re already seeing this happening because of the province’s announcement in 2023,” she said.
Before the district’s proposal becomes official, it will have to go through a public hearing, tentatively scheduled for April 1, and another vote by council.
[email protected]
twitter.com/brentrichter
brentrichter.bsky.social
Want to stay updated on North Vancouver and West Vancouver news? Sign up for our free daily newsletter.
