According to a report by the Regroupement des Comités Logement et Associations de Tenants du Québec (RCLALQ), 79% of rentals offered on Airbnb in Quebec last month were not certified. For its part, the housing rental platform indicated on Tuesday that it was disabling ads without a registration number on its site.
Of the 29,482 ads published on the Airbnb site in February, 23,245 were not certified according to the report entitled “Airbnb: a sacking of the Quebec rental stock”.
The authors indicate that it was in Laval, with a rate of 95%, that the proportion of advertisements that were not certified was the highest.
But Airbnb maintains that the RCLAQ estimates “are inaccurate”.
The Canadian Press asked Airbnb spokesperson Matt McNama for data on the number of rental listings that were uncertified last month and he replied:
“We do not publish the number of listings in a city, but I can confirm that the number is inaccurate.”
A practice that contributes to the housing crisis according to the report
Beyond the proportion of illegal ads, it is the consequences of this practice that worry the authors of the report, who accuse Airbnb of being responsible for a significant part of the housing shortage.
“In most regions, if the accommodations rented on Airbnb had not been lost to tourist accommodation, the vacancy rate would be in equilibrium or above the equilibrium threshold”, indicated Cédric Dussault, co – spokesperson for the RCLALQ.
A rental market is considered balanced when the vacancy rate reaches 3% according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
Below this rate, there is a housing shortage, as in Montreal where the rate was 2.3% in the fall of 2022.
Listings without a registration number will be “disabled today”
Last week, home rental platform Airbnb said it would remove all listings that don’t provide an official registration number from its site and add a field now requiring this permit for all listings in Quebec. .
Airbnb’s decision was announced after a meeting with Tourism Minister Caroline Proulx.
The Canadian Press found on Tuesday that Airbnb continued to display listings without an official registration number.
In some regions, the number of ads without a registration number was even up on Tuesday morning compared to last month, according to RCLALQ data.
On Tuesday afternoon, Airbnb spokesperson Matt McNama wrote to The Canadian Press that “all short-term rental listings without a registration number on Airbnb will be disabled today” and that “to continue hosting short-term stays, Hosts must request a registration number and add it to their announcement page.
Matt McNama added that “accommodators can obtain a registration number on the website of the Corporation de l’industrie touristique du Québec”.
“Certification does not solve everything”
“Certification does not solve everything. The heart of the problem is not illegality, but the transformation of the rental stock for tourist purposes. We are talking here about tenants legally evicted to rent accommodation to tourists or investors who buy accommodation for the sole purpose of renting them on Airbnb, ”said Cédric Dussault.
The RCLALQ asks the Government of Quebec to simply ban short-term rentals in any residence and to ban digital rental platforms such as Airbnb.
“In the absence of a complete ban, the RCLALQ also proposes several other measures to limit the harmful effects of these platforms, such as the ban on commercial tourist use of the rental stock and the repeal of the article of the Civil Code of Quebec which allows the eviction of tenants for change of assignment”, specified the co-spokesperson of the RCLALQ.
Airbnb has been in the spotlight since the fire of a heritage building located in Old Montreal, in which there were several apartments displayed on the platform even if this type of rental is illegal in this sector.
Search teams found seven bodies in the rubble of the building.
Invited to comment on the RCLALQ report which considers that Airbnb contributes to the housing crisis, the cabinet of the Minister of Housing France-Élaine Duranceau indicated that “the tightening of the rules will certainly offer a little more ‘oxygen’ to municipalities. That said, we continue to actively find and provide other solutions to improve the situation. »