A new regulation regarding short-term rentals has been put in place for Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM).

During a council meeting in February, councillors voted to introduce a new rule on short term rentals in HRM. The rule states that owners are required to live in their rental properties if they are in a residential zone or if their property is in a commercial zone. 

Coun. Waye Mason put forth the motion at the Community Planning and Economic Development Committee to address the issue of short term rentals such as Airbnb being used for parties, having a quick turnover and affecting the community feeling on neighbourhoods in HRM. 

Another issue presented to council was the lack of available long term rentals due to companies buying up buildings and using them for Airbnbs during a time when vacancy in Halifax is less than 1 per cent. There are around 2000 units currently being used in Halifax as short term rentals.

“I think it's closer to 1800, that will continue to be legal. So that might be as many as 200 units that could convert to long term rental.” Coun. Shawn Cleary says. 

Cleary says the 200 units won’t be enough to help with the current housing crisis in Halifax.

“To put that in perspective, we need, based on our analysis, 7500 new units of housing built every year for the next five years, in order to bring our vacancy rate up from 1 per cent to about 2 per cent.” 

The new bylaw could also have an effect on tourism in Halifax, Cleary says. 

Discover Halifax presented at the public hearing that the loss of 400 of the 2,000 short term rental listings would be about a $40 to $50 million hit to the tourism economy in Halifax.

“That represented something like 18 per cent of the accommodation that would be available during the height of the tourism season,” Cleary says. 

In May, a rental registry bylaw was put in place that requires all residential rental properties to be registered with the municipality. 

During a council meeting in late August, Cleary suggested holding off on the new short term rental regulation until May 2024 to allow time for data from this registry to help provide information on zoning and see how many of the short term rentals could be converted to long term. 

“Until we get that we have no idea what the impact is going to be and we're causing real harm,” Cleary says.

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