Airbnb regulations already exist in Fredericton, but enforcement is unclear

The City of Fredericton has regulations regarding short-term rentals, but it is unclear whether they are followed by owners or enforced by the city.

According to the city’s zoning regulations, a residential premises or a room in a building intended for residential purposes can be rented for a period of less than 28 days, provided that the owner lives in the same building.

The regulation also states that no more than three rooms may be rented in one detached residential premises.

However, it is unclear whether the ordinance is being followed or whether the city is enforcing it.

The city’s chief planner told Mayor Kate Rogers this week that workers could “probably communicate better,” which the ordinance mandates.

“I think the council needs to better understand what these regulations are,” said Ken Forrest, director of planning and operations. “We will probably need to do a better job of explaining publicly what these rules are.”

CBC News asked Forrest for another interview about how the city is enforcing the ordinance.

Instead, Shasta Stairs sent an email stating that the bylaws are enforced in the same manner as all other bylaws are enforced.

“If we receive a complaint, we will investigate it,” she said.

Forrest’s comments came in response to a question from Rogers during Thursday’s meeting of the city’s economic vitality committee.

Rogers asked Forrest how city officials are managing regulations amid concerns that apartments previously used for long-term rentals are now being rented short-term with the rise of digital platforms such as Airbnb.

“Now we’re hearing from students that they’re being driven out of their apartments because of short-term rentals,” Rogers said.

“We hear about developers putting so many apartments in their buildings into short-term rentals… so it’s really impacting the housing stock.”

Rogers noted that the city currently does not formally know which homes or buildings are short-term rentals, and proposed that the city create a registry to track them.

Online platforms such as Airbnb allow building owners to easily rent out entire houses, apartments or just rooms to others, usually for periods ranging from a few days to a few weeks.

But they have also faced criticism from advocates and tenants over the impact they say it has on housing availability and affordability.

In February, Halifax councilors agreed to implement largely the same regulations that Fredericton already had in place from 2021.

It will come into force in September and will allow owners of buildings in a residential zone to accept short-term tenants as long as it is the owner’s main residence.

Enforcement could help, advocates say

Fredericton has struggled with historically low rental vacancy rates in recent years, with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation pegging it at 2.2% last October.

This housing crisis has prompted the City of Fredericton to examine issues of supply and affordability, and last year it adopted an affordable housing strategy to address the issue.

An easy step to improving the city’s housing situation would be to enforce laws already in place, said Matthew Hayes, a supporter of the New Brunswick Tenants’ Rights Coalition.

Hayes points to data available on the website of short-term rental consultancy Airdna, which shows there are 174 active short-term rental listings in the city.

Of these, 131 are “whole home” listings, which include individual units in a home as well as entire homes.

Hayes said there are a total of 9,547 rental units in Fredericton, which may not seem like a large number, but returning even some of those listings to long-term rentals would provide needed relief from housing pressures in Fredericton.

“If we’re talking about rapid ways to increase the supply of affordable housing, there is no faster way to increase the supply of affordable housing than to return entire units to the long-term market,” Hayes said.

“I feel like the city doesn’t want to enforce (the ordinance),” Hayes said.

“And they should absolutely enforce it. We are in the middle of a housing crisis.”