Kelowna gearing up to adjust short-term rental rules ahead of likely return

People have been shouting to the sky that they want to bring back short-term rentals like Airbnb, and months before the official review date Kelowna is getting its ducks in a row.

On Feb. 23, Kelowna city council plans on introducing a new subzone bylaw that would regulate short-term rentals more closely, but the province isn’t officially set to review the city’s request to bring back Airbnbs until November.

The new subzone bylaw would give the city the ability to allow short-term rentals in certain areas including mixed commercial zones, agricultural zones, mobile home zones and suburban residential zones. It would also increase the amount of time someone could rent a short-term rental from 29 days to 90 days.

It would also split the short-term rental zones into two groups, major short-term accommodation, which wouldn’t require the owner to use the property as their home, and a minor short-term rental accommodation which would require the owner to use the property as their home.

The Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act came into effect on May 1, 2024. It requires a city to have a vacancy rate above 3% to bring back short-term rentals like Airbnbs. Kelowna’s vacancy rate is 6.4%.

Even though council is set to look at this new bylaw, the city still doesn’t have the province’s approval to bring back Airbnbs.

The Kelowna Chamber of Commerce recently joined the many voices calling for a return of short-term rentals ahead of the province’s timeline of Nov. 1.

“It’s just a matter of a signature in Victoria,” Kelowna Chamber CEO George Greenwood said.

“Kelowna has met all the requirements of legislation. Why would the government force local businesses to lose revenue during the May Memorial Cup, and summer events, not to mention business from Kelowna’s summer tourists, just because of an arbitrary date on three-year old legislation?”