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Originally Posted by Changing City
Short term renters are using a residential unit as a hotel suite - not as as residential unit. Had you noticed we have a shortage of residential units to rent? If they stay for 30 days or more, they're renters. Less than that, they're tourists.
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My response was not to say that they're renting the suite for the same reason, obviously they're not. But can you tell me what exactly an AirBNB renter does that a long term renter doesn't?
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We haven't seen many new hotels developed in recent years. We have seen a lot of short-term rentals in residential buildings - many of them without even a valid business licence. It seems reasonable to suggest that one reason nobody was willing to invest in new hotel rooms (for several years before COVID) was because short term rentals were stripping off the potential hotel business. Hotel guests pay taxes to support tourism, and hotel owners pay business taxes, while short-term rental hosts pay (lower) residential taxes.
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I would have thought you of all people would be crying foul then. What happened to "we have limited construction capacity"? Doesn't it bother you that all of a sudden every new major development contains a hotel? You're opening up a can of worms by mentioning that commercial property pays stupidly higher property tax but I don't want to get into that. AirBNB operators if they're smart do pay business taxes. If they're dumb, they pay income taxes.
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Short-term rental landlords made the affordability problem worse in Vancouver. Investors bought apartments at a higher price because they could pay the mortgage from the short-term rental income. That wouldn't be true for a normal tenancy, as a recent news story illustrates.
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We all know this is true for long term rentals too. This is not a problem caused by AirBNB. This is a problem caused by a lack of supply.
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Problems in strata buildings caused by short-term rentals have been widely shared. If a renter, (or an owner) is causing problems in a building it's usually possible for the landlord or strata council to do something about it. With a short term renter, that's impossible - they've gone before the damage to common property is found, (or the water damage from starting a fire). It's even worse if investors have acquired a lot of the units, and the building has become a hotel in all but name.
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Firstly, I remember this article and I put very little value on it. AirBNB renters leave every morning? What, do regular residents not leave for work every morning? I'm bothered when I have to wait for the elevator because others are trying to use it, do AirBNB renters somehow use it more?
Also the idea that short term renters can cause damage with no liability is patently absurd. Sure, they can leave before the damage is found but the owner of the property is now liable. They're part of the equation too you know.
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The City of Vancouver is in the process of making it even easier to operate a home business. It's already legal to do so.
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I didn't know about that that's fantastic! I'm filling out the survey now and it's crazy to me that it was illegal to teach painting in a Vancouver home until now. Talk about over regulation.
But aren't you worried about the fact that HBB pay residential taxes not commercial taxes?
I believe they are proposing to provide the short term rental known as a "hotel". Worse, the most recent proposal is to reduce the amount of residential units to
zero and fully convert the building to a hotel.
https://council.vancouver.ca/20240123/documents/rr1.pdf
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1. Background
In 2007, a mixed-use building was approved under DD zoning to construct 16,820.1 sq. m
(181,050 sq. ft.) of total floor area, including a heritage density transfer of 1,074 sq. m
(11,561 sq. ft.), for a total FSR of 5.5. The development consisted of 231.4 sq. m (2,491 sq. ft.)
of retail uses at grade, 2,717.4 sq. m (29,250 sq. ft.) of office use in the podium, and
13,871 sq. m (149,309 sq. ft.) of dwelling use (188 strata-titled units) in the podium and tower.
In 2019, a development permit was approved for a change of use of 20 units or 1,322.6 sq. m
(14,236 sq. ft.) of residential (strata) to commercial (hotel).
2. Proposal
The existing mixed-use development has a total floor area of 16,820.1 sq. m (181,050 sq. ft.).
The application proposes to change the use of 12,548.7 sq. m (135,073 sq. ft.) of residential
floor area (strata) to commercial floor area (hotel strata). The rezoning and resulting change of
use from residential to commercial will increase the density from 5.5 to 6.17 FSR.
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But I guess we don't care about this, huh? After all, we don't care about building new units, all we care about is kicking AirBNBs out! Thank God wonderful benevolent companies like Onni can apply to convert their rental units into short term rentals, but disgusting filthy private citizens are fortunately prevented from doing so.