MONTREAL — Mayor Valerie Plante today announced a new ban on short-term rentals. The partial ban would not apply to a handful of designated tourism streets, and will be in effect for nine months out of each year. Short-term rentals will be allowed to operate under current rules in the summer, between June 10 and September 10.
To enforce the new ban, the city will be instituting new fines of $1,000 to 4,000, and hiring new inspectors. The dedicated short-term rental inspection squad, which Ricochet covered when it was launched last year, will more than triple in size — going from three to ten full-time inspectors.
“We’re changing the paradigm,” Plante explained during a press conference this morning. The city believes these policy changes will return thousands of units of housing to the long-term rental market in a matter of months. “For those people who are operating illegally, who are taking apartments away from Montrealers, I say no more. We’re done.”
Plante tied the crisis of homelessness that the city is experiencing to the thousands of rental units tied up in illegal short-term rental operations, noting that 65 per cent of Montreal residents are renters. She emphasized that the principal residence exemption, which allows short-term rentals in the operator’s principal residence, was being widely abused by commercial operations — as first reported by Zachary Kamel for Ricochet last November following an investigation that uncovered over 1500 short-term rentals falsely claiming the principal residence exemption.
“We’re changing the paradigm. For those people who are operating illegally, who are taking apartments away from Montrealers, I say no more. We’re done.”
“The burden of proof will be reversed,” explained the mayor, noting that anytime a listing goes up on a platform like Airbnb between September and June, it will be immediately investigated and likely fined without needing to prove that it is not located in a principal residence, “and that will make it much easier for those inspectors to do their job.”
As Ricochet reported when the new inspection squad was launched, proving that a rental is not located in a principal residence is very hard, and inspectors argue it ties their hands.
“We believe more units will be available, because it won’t be as interesting for people to keep (a unit vacant) for just 92 days (during which they can rent it on the short-term market).”
In response to a question about what the city is doing to oversee commercial operations that may be legal, but still pose a threat to the public, Plante noted that they’ve increased the fire department’s budget to conduct inspections, and focused resources on touristic areas like the Old Port where multiple fires in illegal Airbnbs led to increased scrutiny of short-term rentals in the city.
“If some people are doing this for business, and not respecting the rule that this be your principal residence, then we’ll be able to act quickly and efficiently.”
“It’s a step in the right direction,” Sud Ouest city councillor Craig Sauve told Ricochet. “Obviously Airbnb has been wreaking havoc in our housing market for some time now, and in an acute housing and homelessness crisis it’s time to move towards big and bold actions to resolve this crisis.
The provincial government’s management of the housing crisis has been an absolute disgrace, and cities are trying to step up and do their part.”
The reaction from the provincial government, which is responsible for the widely circumvented principal residence exemption, was swift and dismissive.
Tourism minister Caroline Proulx came out swinging before the mayor had even held her press conference, warning that the new rules threatened Montreal’s “reputation” and put tourists at risk. “Mayor Valérie Plante is looking for someone to blame for her inaction on housing,” Ms. Proulx told the Journal de Montreal.
