It is easy to see both sides of the vacation rental debate.
On the one hand, it is dang expensive to own a home in Squamish so homeowners seek a release valve for the mortgage pressure.
I own a 900-square-foot unit that costs me almost $2,500 a month.
It hurts, so no wonder Squamish homeowners decide they can live a better life here by renting under the more lucrative and hassle-free vacation rental process than by renting the property out longer term.
For those who bought here as an investment, the vacation rental option must seem like the obvious choice.
But the cost to the Squamish rental stock is obvious too.
When I first started working in the Sea to Sky Corridor about five years ago, I couldn’t find a long-term rental, so I searched Airbnb. The tiny apartment I found cost me — even back then — $2,000 for three weeks a month.
I had to be out on a couple of the weekends and one week a month because it had been pre-booked by others. Luckily, we still had our rental in the city so I went back and forth.
I finally found a stable place to rent.
Actually, it was a sublet for six months and so seemed much more stable than living out of a suitcase.
For almost a year I spent more on housing than I made — a reality that impacts my finances to this day.
My story is not unique. Affordable rentals are almost impossible to find in this town.
The District is right to look at cracking down, as was recommended in the “District of Squamish Affordable Housing Program Final Report” adopted in March.
District planning staff is set to undertake “a short-term vacation project” once the current Zoning Bylaw omnibus amendments are completed, according to a District spokesperson.
Fair regulations can be formulated — like those recommended in a 2017 McGill University School of Urban Planning report: one host, one rental; no full-time, entire-home vacation rentals; and make platforms responsible for enforcement.
These regulations could allow strapped Squamish residents to still make some cash, but also free up some of the hundreds of units that are currently up for offer on vacation sites in the Sea to Sky Corridor.
Currently, the scale is tipped way too far against those who rent.
The province could step up too with some innovative initiatives.
Other regions around the world are providing incentives for those who choose to use their property as long-term rentals. Tasmania, for one, has a pilot program of paying homeowners up to $13,000 a year if they offer rental properties with a yearly lease at an affordable rent.
There are solutions that are workable and fair. We just need to get behind them, Squamish.
