Kelowna puts finishing touches on preparation for return of short-term rentals

The City of Kelowna is making some final preparations for the return of short-term rentals.

The province allowed the city to opt-out of short-term rental restrictions as of June 1, and the city is set to adopt a bylaw to help prevent them from impacting the long-term rental market.

City council is set to adopt a short-term rental bylaw, May 4, that would restrict where people are allowed to have short-term rentals ahead of their return.

People who want to list a property on sites like Airbnb or Vrbo will need to have a licence issued by the city.

The bylaw will also break up sections of the city, so in some places people will be able to rent out properties for a short term if they don’t live in, and in others neighbourhoods the short-term rental will have to be in a primary residence.

The goal is to loosen up the regulations while protecting Kelowna’s long-term rental stock.

The short-term rental ban went into effect on May 1, 2024, with the goal of preventing people from taking housing off the market for long-term renters in cities that had low vacancy rates. Since then, Kelowna has increased its vacancy rate from 1.7 per cent to 6.2 per cent.

Kelowna was the only municipality to apply to opt-out of the short-term rental regulations and have the date moved up from November since the Memorial Cup, BC Summer Games and Touchdown Kelowna are coming to town.