STR’s or Short term rentals, have just lost a footing in major Canadian cities like Toronto and Ottawa.
My understanding is that the ultimate goal of regulating STR is to make rental housing more affordable which is great. However, I have a nagging suspicion that the vacancy rates will not change and rents will continue to climb.
Can someone at the city (or any city) please share evidence that shows regulating STR has actually improved the rental market or housing affordability in any Canadian city?
Lets not even get into whether or not the cities have the ability to investigate, inspect, enforce OR EVEN FUND this legislation in practice.
I digress…
Federal government stats show 115,000 (at least) people move to the GTA…each year.
So wether it’s 5500-66,000 units, Toronto’s housing shortage isn’t created by any single factor and won’t be solved (by a long shot) by this measure.
Also, the same stats projected there would be approx 250,000 new residents in Ontario last year, but there ended up being 410,000. So maybe all levels of the government, and these Legislators don’t have a clue how they are going to house everyone…
We are going to need honest conversation (not headline finger wagging) between actual economic + industry experts, officials and community advocates. This is a big, complicated problem that will likely require a 20+ year (uncomfortable) plan.