Australian tourists reconsider Kelowna vacation in wake of new short-term rental rules

The new rules are the provincial government's response to the housing crisis in an effort to turn short term rentals into long term ones.

After a week-long stay in Kelowna, B.C., back in 2016, Troy Harmon and his family knew they would one day come back to visit.

“We fell in love with it on our last trip,” Harmon told Global News.

The Australian family decided to plan a trip back to the Okanagan in the fall of 2024 and have already booked their one-month-long accommodation, a two-bedroom apartment in downtown Kelowna.

But their plans are now in limbo in the wake of provincial legislation cracking down on short-term rentals.

“Obviously it would have a pretty big impact on our trip that we’re planning,” Harmon said. “We’d planned to spend about four months in Canada and Kelowna was a huge part of that trip.”

The new rules are the provincial government’s response to the housing crisis in an effort to turn short-term rentals into long-term ones.

The legislation will ban vacation rentals, including the one already booked by Harmon, forcing him to re-consider his plans.

“If it gets passed, we probably won’t come to B.C. for an extended period of time because we need the space.  We want to be able to cook. We want to be able to have space for our boys to be separated,  not to live on top of each other,” Harmon said. “So yeah, we might have to look at other plans in terms of where to go.”