Why a Kelowna MLA wants to speed up the process to bring back short-term rentals

The City of Kelowna has been looking at potentially bringing short-term rentals back, but it’s not a quick process. 

Kelowna-Mission MLA Gavin Dew said because of bureaucratic red tape, it could take up to a year before more tourists can rent Airbnbs so he’s trying to move that timeline up.  

“If the province insists on going by the process that they’ve laid out, that means that we will lose another summer of tourism opportunity in Kelowna after having significant downsides this summer,” Dew said.

There is an event this week at the Basil & Mint at 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 12, where Dew, councillor Ron Cannan, short-term rental investors and tourism business operators are going to discuss the potential rule change for short-term rentals in the city. 

Municipalities can opt-out of the provincial short-term rental restrictions if their vacancy rates are above three per cent. The city’s data shows the vacancy rate is around five per cent. 

The city has been making preparations to allow for more short-term rentals, but it needs to wait for official vacancy rate data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to come out to make the change. The data usually comes out between October and February each year. 

He said the series of events has to go like this: the official vacancy rate data comes out, then the city could ask to opt-out of the provincial rules by March 31, then the province would review the information and decide in November 2026. 

Dew said he is going to bring forward amendments to the short-term rental bill in the Legislative Assembly in the coming weeks to try to speed things up. 

The goal is to make the provincial rules for deciding on municipalities opting out of the rules align with the tourism calendar and so that cities could have more flexibility when major events happen like the 2026 Memorial Cup in Kelowna.

Lots of buildings, like the Aqua Waterfront Village, had short-term rentals in mind when construction started, and Dew said people have lost a lot of money because they invested in rental properties that they can’t rent to tourists.  

“I have spoken in recent days to people who have lost north of $50,000 because they were committed to pre-sale agreements in developments like Aqua…. It was assumed it would be purpose-built rental when it was built. It was assumed it would be purpose-built rental when they put locks on the bottom drawers in the bathrooms to store extra toilet paper,” Dew said.

He said short-term rentals affect more than just tenants, tourists and real estate investors. 

“When we talk about short-term rental, it’s important we recognize the full ecosystem and the full range of people that are affected by it. It’s not just landlords. It’s not just renters. It’s also your restaurants, your wineries, your tourism experience operators, your cleaning services, your handymen, your everything,” he said. 

Dew said tourism businesses struggled this summer because of a lack of Airbnbs, and the executive director for the Downtown Kelowna Association, Paula Quinn, previously told iNFOnews.ca the same thing. 

“With the high prices in the hotels in this season, they’re finding it difficult to eat out every night, going for picnics on the beach with the family, etc., or doing other activities like horse riding or hikes and more culture,” she said. “It is very, very noticeable. And a lot of people have their favourites that they go to, so they’ll choose them first before experimenting with something else maybe.”

On Nov. 3, Kelowna City Council received its latest report on short-term rentals and heard a plan to bring back more short-term rentals with a “balanced approach” that would bring back more short-term rentals while still having some restrictions. 

Between 2020 and 2023, there was a 93 per cent increase in short-term rentals in Kelowna, jumping from 630 to 1,217.

After the ban came into full effect in May 2024 there were just 427 approved secondary use short-term rentals that were allowed to stay open for business.