Canada has more than 100K short-term rentals that could be housing: report
Global News
In 2017, there were 58,441 short-term rental units that could be considered potential long-term dwellings. By the end of 2023, this number had risen to 107,266.
The number of short-term rentals in Canada has grown sharply since 2017, with units that could be considered usable for long-term housing growing even faster, a new Statistics Canada report said on Tuesday.
According to the report, the total number of short-term rental units in Canada grew by 60 per cent between 2017 and 2023. The number of units considered ‘potential long-term dwellings’ (PLTDs) – or units that could be long-term housing – rose by 80 per cent.
In 2017, there were 58,441 short-term rental units that could be considered potential long-term dwellings. By the end of 2023, this number had risen to 107,266, the report said. In 2017, potential long-term dwellings made up 27.2 per cent of all short-term rentals. By 2023, this share was 30.2 per cent.
The report describes potential long-term dwellings as entire housing units being listed for more than 180 days. This does not include vacation-type properties.
However, the trend was not linear and was broken by the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Total short-term listings fell by 19.2 per cent from 2019 to 2021. Potential long-term dwellings listed for short-term use fell even more sharply, with a 28.1 per cent drop.
The report said this was due to a decline in tourism activity.
“After the decline in tourism during the pandemic, many property owners may have converted their STRs to long-term rentals. This could also explain why 2022 marked a low point in the proportion of PLTDs, since many thousands of units may have still been tied up in 12-month leases during the onset of the recovery,” the report said.
The report said this activity “may support the notion that these units could be used as long-term dwellings.”
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