Airbnb: 79 per cent of Quebec rentals in February not certified, housing group says

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A rental market is considered balanced when the vacancy rate reaches three per cent, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. A rate below three per cent constitutes a housing shortage; Montreal's rate in 2022 was 2.3 per cent.

Airbnb said last week it would remove all Quebec listings without permits, eight days after a fatal fire destroyed an Old Montreal building that housed illegal rentals. Seven people were killed in the blaze.

As of Tuesday morning, the San Francisco-based housing marketplace still hosted Quebec listings without permit numbers issued by the province. But later in the day, McNama said in a written statement that "all short-term rental listings without a registration number on Airbnb will be disabled today."

Dussault said limiting companies like Airbnb to listing only government-certified rental units "doesn't solve everything." He said the government should instead ban short-term rental companies from operating in the province.

"The heart of the problem is not whether a listing in certified or not, but the transformation of long-term rental units for tourism purposes. We are talking about tenants who are legally evicted to rent units to tourists or investors who buy units for the sole purpose of renting them on Airbnb."