Basement apartment ban proposed for Toronto Airbnb

"We have an extremely unhealthy vacancy rate in this city," Councillor Ana Bailao told her colleagues before the vote.

TheStar.com
Nov. 15, 2017
David Rider

Unmoved by pleas from desperate homeowners, some Toronto councillors want self-contained basement apartments banned from Airbnb and other short-term rental services.

Planning committee members unanimously rejected a city staff proposal that secondary units, with their own kitchens and bathrooms, be included in new regulations on lucrative rentals of less than 28 days.

Their concerns Wednesday echoed those of Vancouver councillors who a day before enacted regulations that also ban short-term secondary unit rentals.

Councillor Ana Bailao, Mayor John Tory's housing advocate, told fellow committee members that Airbnb has a place in Toronto but city council, when it finalizes rules on Dec. 6, can't let long-term rental units for Torontonians instead host a parade of temporary visitors.

"We have an extremely unhealthy vacancy rate in this city," said Bailão, one of Tory's deputy mayors. "If you are a renter trying to find an apartment to live in this city, it is a really bad experience. It's frustrating, it's desperate, people are having a tough time and obviously it has an impact on rents."

After public consultations, city staff proposed rules that would allow Torontonians to short-term rent their homes only if it is their principal residence.

That is meant to halt a stampede of investment units off the long-term market and onto daily or weekly rentals, with multiple units turning some buildings into "ghost hotels" with coming and going but few actual residents.

Airbnb hosts renting out up to three bedrooms, or their whole home for up to 180 nights per year, would pay the city $50 per year. Short-term booking agencies would pay the city a $5,000 licence fee and $1 a night per booking, and have policies to deal with noisy, disruptive tenants.

Earlier, during public presentations, Scarborough homeowner Paul Nedoszytko told councillors he and his wife renovated their basement and put the apartment on Airbnb four years ago when both were laid off within two months of each other.

Unlike most Airbnb hosts they have guests every night, Nedoszytko said, declining to tell councillors how much they earn. A rental site lists his unit as averaging $67 per night and he said it fetches more in summer.

"I have no pension, I have no drug plan, I have no dental plan," said an emotional Nedoszytko. "We're really behind the eight ball in terms of preparing for our future" and Airbnb will let them "age in place."