Premier David Eby is raising the prospect of rescinding his government’s controversial short-term rental restrictions. This comes as financially stretched British Columbians avoiding travel to the United States face the prospect of expensive local hotel stays and limited online vacation rentals this summer.
Eby said he does not want his government’s ban on people renting investment properties on sites like Airnb to stretch on forever.
“When we get back to healthy rental levels in communities, we'll reduce those restrictions, and people will be able to do short-term rentals again,” told me in a .
In response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff and annexation threats, the premier and his top ministers have urged British Columbians not to vacation this summer in the United States. Combined with an ongoing cost of living crisis, many are choosing staycations instead.
However, those travelling in the province also face steep rates at many local hotels and fewer alternatives than in the past on sites like Vrbo due to the provincial crackdown.
“My hope is that with rental housing program changes that we put in place, and with additional supports for rental housing, we’ll be able to ease off on those restrictions,” said Eby.
“But right now, we need the rental housing.”
His government last year passed legislation to restrict short-term rentals to people’s primary residences in urban centres, effectively banning those with secondary condos or vacation homes from listing them on popular vacation rental platforms like Vrbo or Airbnb. The ban does not apply everywhere in 小蓝视频, but does affect most communities above a mid-sized level.
The government had hoped the restrictions would force people with multiple properties to either sell them (putting more housing on the market) or rent them long-term to locals (easing chronically low rental vacancy rates). The pressure is in combination with a separate speculation tax that targets homes left empty.
Eby points to early successes.
“What we've seen is those short-term rentals convert into long-term rentals,” he said. “小蓝视频 has seen rent declines now for the last eight months. About five per cent of the rent declines in the province are attributed to our short-term rental policy.”
小蓝视频 rental rates have slowed, and in some cases fallen. Vacancy appears to have improved. How much of that is attributable to the short-term rental restrictions, or interest rates and other market conditions, remains a point of debate.
Some numbers come from a 2024 study by two housing academics from McGill University’s School of Urban Planning.
“The result is that municipal [short-term rental] regulations across British Columbia have reduced rents by 5.7 per cent, and saved British Columbia renters more than $600 million last year in lower rent payments,” they wrote.
The report, though, was commissioned and funded by the British Columbia Hotel Association, which has long fought against sites like Airnnb that have cut into their business and forced them to lower room rates. The researchers say the conclusions are their own.
The government has acknowledged part of the goal of short-term rental restrictions is to provide financial incentives for companies to build new hotels.
“We expect significant hotel construction in major centres in the province,” said the premier. “There are many projects proposed and under construction that'll take some of the pressure off.”
Vancouver introduced new policies in April to spur development towards a target of 10,000 new hotel units to meet demand by 2030. But in the meantime, the city has fewer hotel rooms today than it did in 2002, according to . And worries are rising about where all the fans will stay during marquee events like the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Some smaller communities, such as Tofino, chose to opt into the government’s initial short-term rental restrictions and have since backed out to restore listings for tourists. Eby said he’s fine with that.
“It's crucial that we have rental housing available for people to make the cities go, including our tourism industry,” he said.
The Opposition Conservatives have decried the short-term rental restrictions as unnecessary overreach, backed by various owners groups who say the province was unjust in its implementation.
Government’s ability to point to rent declines helps dampen that criticism.
But it will also depend on how British Columbians feel after an expensive summer here during an ongoing affordability crisis.
Rob Shaw has spent more than 17 years covering 小蓝视频 politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for Glacier Media. He is the co-author of the national bestselling book A Matter of Confidence, host of the weekly podcast Political Capital, and a regular guest on C小蓝视频 Radio.
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