N.L. property owners, housing expert say short-term rental regulations miss the mark

A housing expert says the provincial government's long-awaited short-term regulations miss the mark — and property owners say a lack of clarity could spell trouble for next year's tourism season.

In April, Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism Minister Steve Crocker announced the provincial government would require property owners to register short-term rentals and follow the same municipal and provincial rules governing established operators like hotels.

Hope Jamieson, a St. John's affordable housing researcher and consultant, said other than the registration requirement, the new regulations don't do much to change the status quo.

"There are ways that we can apply legislation to mitigate some of the harmful impact of short-term rentals, but I'm not convinced that what we see here is going to do that," they said in an interview with CBC News.

In previous interviews, Crocker has said the regulations aren't meant to reduce the number of short-term rentals, but rather level the playing field for all accommodation businesses. 

Jamieson there isn't much detail on what rules municipal and provincial rules property owners will have to follow.

CBC News asked the City of St. John's what municipal regulations property owners will have to comply with.

In a statement, St. John's spokesperson Erin Skinner said the city doesn't have regulations that apply to short-term rental properties.

"Furthermore, the regulations that were enacted under the Tourism Accommodations Act do not prescribe any standards," wrote Skinner. "The City of St. John's has requested for the provincial government to provide standards that would apply to all municipalities … so that all registered short-term rental properties would be held to the same provincial standard."

Jamieson said that request makes sense.

"I think it would be helpful too for folks who are operating short-term rentals to have a clear, comprehensive framework for what will be required of them as opposed to having to do this kind of piecemeal."

Down to the wire

Carla Sheedy said she registered her Codroy bed and breakfast with the provincial government after Airbnb sent her notice of the requirement on July 19.

"It was very easy to do," she said.

More than a month later, though, she hasn't heard if her registration application was accepted.

Sheedy is in a Facebook group in which short-term rental owners share their frustrations about the process.

Chris Brennan, another member of the group, owns an Airbnb rental property in Carbonear and is building short-term rentals in Burin.

Brennan said he thinks regulating short-term rentals makes sense.

"I think it's obviously fair to have regulations that match up with those of other rental companies and hotels in the industry; obviously helps to kind of keep things a little bit fair," he said.

However, he said so far, the requirements — beyond the registration itself — are unclear. 

"We're OK with changes happening, but we're actually not clear yet what the changes are," he said.

Brennan said he wants more information about how the regulations will change his operations well before the March 31 deadline.

"It's getting down to the wire," he said.

In a statement, tourism department spokesperson Gina MacArthur said the new regulations are not intended to change how short-term rentals operate.

"There are no fees associated with registering, and operators will no longer be required to have a Canada Select rating, which did require a fee," she said.

MacArthur said fines for non-compliance are possible but are a measure of "last resort."

Short-term rentals, housing and tourism

Jamieson said short-term rentals do contribute to housing scarcity in specific tourism-heavy urban and rural parts of the province, like the Battery neighbourhood in St. John's, or towns like Bonavista.

According to the Tourism Department, as of Monday there were 800 registered accommodations and campgrounds in the province and 300 applications being processed. Those numbers include all accommodations, though — not just short-term rentals like Airbnb properties.

Jamieson said exact numbers for short-term rentals are hard to nail down but there are around 700 in the St. John's area alone.

They said the resulting lack of long-term housing — ironically — creates problems for the tourism industry.

"The businesses in the area which rely on tourists and rely on staff coming in from elsewhere to operate their businesses are then challenged to be able to operate as many hours of the day as they want to due to staffing issues because of the housing shortage," they said.

Still, Jamieson said they're focused on other policy solutions, like building more affordable housing; according to Jamieson, getting rid of short-term rentals like Airbnb will not solve the housing crisis.

"It's really not that simple," they said.

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