Federal housing minister floats Airbnb crackdown to boost long-term rental supply

Housing Minister Sean Fraser said Monday the federal government is considering a series of measures to curb the number of Airbnb and other short-term rental units on offer to boost the supply of homes available to rent for a longer stretch.

Fraser said a crackdown on the proliferation of these units is part of a broader Liberal government plan to help build and finance more housing units to deal with an acute shortage of affordable homes.

The fall economic statement, set to be tabled tomorrow, is expected to include billions of dollars worth of new measures to help Canada cope with a severe housing crunch, including low-cost loans for home construction.

But Fraser said there’s another way to address the supply crunch: make existing properties tied up on short-term rental platforms available to prospective long-term renters and buyers.

“We believe there’s likely tens of thousands of homes that could be made available to Canadians by addressing this particular challenge,” Fraser said of Airbnb units, which typically are rented out a few nights at a time to travellers.

“If there’s tens of thousands of units we can turn into not a competitor for a hotel for a few nights but a home for a family in a community, it’s incumbent on us to do everything we can to use those properties for homes.”

Fraser said Ottawa could use its taxation powers to make owning an Airbnb less lucrative to “bring on new pockets of supply.”

The government’s theory is that if it’s less financially advantageous to put a property up for rent on a platform like Airbnb or VRBO, many owners will instead sell their units or rent them out for longer stretches to locals and newcomers.

The Toronto Star reported Monday that Ottawa will soon block people from deducting expenses on short-term rentals in areas where those services are already limited by other levels of government.

Radio-Canada, CBC’s French-language service, has also confirmed that reporting.

That tax measure, which would come into effect on Jan. 1, is meant to crack down on property owners who flout local regulations.

But Fraser said there may be other levers Ottawa can pull beyond tax measures to rein in the number of short-term rental units. He didn’t offer any specifics.