In several rural villages in Quebec popular with visitors from here and elsewhere, the short-term rental platform Airbnb has had the effect of scarcity of housing available for tenants who wish to live there long term, in addition to leading to rent increases. State of play.
There has been a lot of talk in recent years about the inconvenience caused by the presence of accommodation offered on Airbnb in Montreal. However, the proportion of the rental market captured by this platform is significantly higher in dozens of villages located in the Charlevoix, Laurentides and Estrie regions, among others, than it is in the metropolis, according to unpublished data from the Inside Airbnb site obtained by The duty. These only count accommodation put up for rent for short periods on this platform and therefore do not take into account its competitors, such as Sonder and Vrbo.
The metropolis has nearly 9,000 entire homes rented out on Airbnb, i.e. around 1% of its rental stock. This proportion is close to 38% in the small bucolic municipality of Petite-Rivière-Saint-François, it reaches nearly 16% in L’Anse-Saint-Jean, in the Charlevoix region, and is around 11% in Mont-Tremblant, in the Laurentians.
“It is very worrying because there is a low-income population who lives all year round in these municipalities”, where the rental market is tightening and where rents are rising rapidly, underlines in an interview the spokesperson. from the Popular Action Front in Urban Redevelopment (FRAPRU), Véronique Laflamme.
The organization cross-referenced data from the Inside Airbnb site with data from the latest Statistics Canada census to assess the impact of short-term rentals from this platform on the rental market of all municipalities in the province. The duty obtained the results of this analysis, a few days before the 1er July.
The mayor of Baie-Saint-Paul, Michaël Pilote, is also well aware of the monopolization of part of the rental housing in his city by this short-term rental platform. This situation, he points out, occurs at the very moment when workers are declining offers in the restaurant and hotel sectors, and even in the Baie-Saint-Paul hospital, “because they cannot find not a place to stay”.
“Of course it is worrying,” says the elected official in his late twenties, who “does not want the quality of life of the people who live in the territory to suffer from tourism”. It thus hopes to adopt, in the coming weeks, regulatory changes that would have the effect of limiting the number of authorizations that can be issued on its territory for this type of tourist accommodation, in addition to restricting the permitted areas. “We are in the process of being more severe and limiting their presence on the territory”, supports Mr. Pilote, who noted that the legislation put in place by Quebec to regulate short-term rentals has “little teeth “.
“What we see is that the current rules do not discourage investors who make a business “, also underlines Véronique Laflamme, who calls for an outright ban on Airbnb-type rentals in areas where the vacancy rate for rental accommodation has fallen below 3%.
High rents
An analysis carried out by The duty housing put up for long-term rental on the Kijiji site also shows that the average rent for a four and a half is higher in four regional county municipalities (RCM) in Quebec than in Montreal. It exceeds 1,500 dollars per month in two MRCs in the Laurentians and reaches 1,492 dollars in that of Fjord-du-Saguenay, sectors that have several tourist villages. This average rent is 1425 dollars on the island of Montreal.
“When you know that you can make a lot of money by putting accommodation on Airbnb, it also helps to increase the price of rents”, to the detriment of “local communities”, believes Mme The flame. This is particularly the case in Mont-Tremblant, where rents have become “exorbitant”, notes street worker Martin Légaré, who helps low-income and vulnerable people in the area.
“In Mont-Tremblant, there are two classes: there are the poor and the rich”, says the man who observes that the accommodation rented at high prices on Airbnb indirectly prevents many low-income tenants from staying in this Laurentian municipality for a price that suits their financial situation.
“The lack of housing is huge, I have people on the street, people doing couch surfing by sleeping with friends because they don’t have their own, says Mr. Légaré. “If there were housing for people on social assistance, that would be great, but they take it all to make Airbnb. »
With Laurianne Croteau