VANCOUVER—After enacting rules that prevent commercial operators from listing apartments on Airbnb and other short-term rental sites, Vancouver city councillors are exploring ideas that could partially reopen the door.Councillor Pete Fry said allowing companies to use several floors of a building as a hotel could encourage the construction of new rental buildings without the typical waiving of development fees, used by the city to fund amenities such as parks. His idea would also boost the flagging number of hotel rooms in the city, he said.Council has already heard speakers for Fry’s motion and will debate and vote on the idea Tuesday.Councillor Melissa De Genova, meanwhile, has submitted a motion that proposes to relax some of the regulations, including a current rule that homeowners and renters are only allowed to list their primary residence. Under De Genova’s proposal, homeowners and renters could list any suite they own or lease.De Genova’s motion proposes a system in which the number of licences would be capped by neighbourhood as a way of controlling the unbridled growth of short-term rentals. City planners and experts say the shift to short term has removed many suites that could be rented long term from the rental market.Read more:Three hundred long-term rentals back on market in Vancouver thanks to new Airbnb rules, says researcher Analysis shows foreign money fuelled Vancouver’s shockingly high real estate prices, says academicCRA finds $1 billion in taxes owing after investigating real estate in B.C. and OntarioDe Genova said she drafted her motion in response to Fry’s. She said Fry’s motion would give developers and large companies preferential treatment over residents and said she had yet to see any work from city staff that showed units had actually been converted back to long-term rental because of the new rules.David Wachsmuth, a professor at McGill University’s School of Urban Policy, recently ca ...
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