COVID has dramatically changed – along with essentially everything else – Toronto’s housing market, lower rental prices as people fled the city or have been forced to turn their once lucrative short-term rental properties in old regular units for people who actually live in the city.
Vacancy rate reached records in 2020, in particular in condominiums known to host Airbnb”ghost hotels– often smaller, sparsely furnished units rented out in perpetuity for profit.
A total ban on Airbnb limiting the risks of COVID-19 has made things difficult for these house-hoarding hostsand new rules introduced by the city in an attempt to reduce the number of such rentals promised to make things even worse.
The biggest problem in Toronto is @Airbnb have ghost hotels and ghost houses occupying the entire available housing stock. It was always meant to be people renting a few rooms or just renting out their house for a month or two, not full-time rentals with all-night parties.
— Aurelia Cotta (@AureliaCotta) March 8, 2022
Since January 1, 2021, operators in the city were required to register their properties as short-term vacation rentals, subjecting them to certain rules: namely that the property had to be their main residence.
Although the city sworn to strictly apply the new regulations, more than 90 percent of owners had not registered within weeks of the deadline, and among thousands of illegal Airbnb in operation, only a handful of hosts faces charges.
And as the lists dwindled after the ban on the panny, it looks like they are starting to shoot again.
According to the city, since the launch of the online registration system for hosts in September 2020 through April 1, 2022, 4,529 applications have been submitted, with 13.5% (613) submitted and approved in 2022.
Airbnb also confirmed that Toronto was the trending destination for Canadians on the app this spring, more popular than anywhere else in Canada or the United States
After much fanfare and several successful lawsuits against Airbnb, Toronto doesn’t bother to enforce or prosecute “ghost hotels.” You are alone. https://t.co/e72BYJUjfP
—Adam Walker (@Adam5Walker) March 6, 2022
A quick look at available units also shows the traditional ghost hotel-like places we’ve seen pre-COVID: small bedrooms in newer buildings with basic IKEA furniture and lake views for a nice penny.
There are also instances where multiple units are attached to a single license number, which clearly does not comply with new city regulations.
“In Toronto, you are only allowed to rent short-term as your primary residence. This is the residence where you live and the address you use for bills, ID, taxes and insurance. You can only have one primary residence at a time, so you can’t legally operate more than one short-term rental,” a city rep assured blogTO.
They added that under the regulations, landlords are allowed to rent out up to three bedrooms in their primary residence as separate listings, all under the same registration number.
But, there are a number of cases where there are multiple (in some cases five), clearly completely different residences under one license number.
When will Airbnb implement the legal short-term rental codes published daily by the City of Toronto?
You actively support ghost hotels that don’t pay taxes.
—Douglas Murray (@douglas_murray) January 18, 2022
Registration number STR-2108-GMQVHG, for example, has five rooms in five separate units — which appear in different locations on a map — listed for rent on the app.
The same goes for registration number STR-2103-FGTDVB, and others, although each of them is listed only as an entry at an address in the publicly available dataset from the city.
An Airbnb spokesperson told blogTO that it continues to work with the City of Toronto “to ensure all listings comply with city regulations, including having a host registration number. approved by the city.
The city urges people to report this and any other short-term rental bylaw violations.
I live in Toronto and many Airbnbs are units in condos because that’s what the city primarily builds. People buy multiple apartments in the condo and as a result many condos operate as ghost hotels. It creates so many problems, with very little benefit to the city.
— Linden 🇺🇦 🇺🇦 🇺🇦 ❤️ (@AnnaNikolo) May 20, 2021
But, it’s evident that even with the registration process in place, ghost hotels are falling through the cracks, worsening the city’s housing crisis as supply dwindles and the price of accommodation goes down. average unit continues to reach more and more ridiculous heights that are completely overpriced. reach most of those who live here.
And, new efforts to supposedly “repress” on the execution are actually let errant hosts off the hook due to an interesting interpretation of the new regulations in which a non-occupying landlord who uses the services of short-term rental management companies rather than managing multiple illegal listings themselves cannot be charged.
It’s a terribly infuriating but very real loophole that’s apparently being exploited as the city continues to struggle with housing affordability, the average home in the GTA in general – not even in Toronto proper –now costs $1.3 million and properties in small towns in Ontario now tied with LA.
The city’s Airbnb hosts aren’t known for always playing by the rules either, with many continuing to operate even during the full moratorium on short-term rentals at the height of the health crisis.
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