Kelowna landlords not rushing to short-term rentals just because the rules changed

Kelowna pushed to get the province to allow more short-term rentals earlier than it had planned and while the city has issued hundreds of licenses this year already that doesn’t mean property owners are clamouring over each other to get back on Airbnb.

The province gave the City of Kelowna the go-ahead to allow more short-term rentals as of June 1. Some property management companies are seeing an uptick in business but not a mad dash of people switching from long-term to short-term rentals.

Nomadics Vacation Rentals offers management services for short-term rental owners who don’t want to do any host, cleaning or administration duties. Jeremy Barrows is a partner at Nomadics and he said business has definitely picked up since the short-term rental rules were lifted, but it hasn’t been like opening a floodgate.

“The issue probably is that people still have long-term tenants in their places. So they can’t just switch it over automatically. They either have to probably wait until their leases come up or people want to leave,” Barrows said.

So far this year, the city has issued 1,002 short-term rental licenses with 152 pending reviews, and it’s accepting more applications.

Not all 1,002 licenses are available on popular online platforms, at least not yet. The short-term rental data site AirROI said there are 791 total active listings in Kelowna and 85 per cent are properly registered.

The city created a new sub-zone in an effort to keep short-term rentals in certain parts of the city. Normally, under provincial regulations, Airbnb hosts can only rent out their principal residence, but now units in Kelowna’s new short-term rental zone don’t have to abide by that rule.

“Restoring short-term rentals in buildings that previously operated this way and/or were built with this purpose in mind. The principal residence requirement remains in place for all other zones to ensure long-term rental supply continues to be protected,” the city said in a statement.

Barrows said even though the city is trying to protect long-term rental stock, some landlords are trying to hurry tenants out of their long-term leases.

“Or we’ve even had people basically pay them to leave just because it makes financial sense to get the tenant out and they were both happy,” he said.

Barrows said there might still be people who are worried that the rules could change again, or that the market isn’t going to support as many short-term rentals as it used to.

“People are also waiting to see how many come online and if they’re going to keep doing well or not,” he said.

Other side businesses that make money from short-term rentals are also rearing to go.

Turno is a platform that connects hosts with cleaners who bid on jobs. A new unit in Kelowna can get several bids from cleaners as soon as it’s listed on the platform.

Barrow said business is good for owners, and companies like Nomadics, but there’s still a sense of uncertainty.

“I don’t think (the B.C. government) is going to have more changes now because they know they may have screwed up, but they did it once so you never know,” he said.