Whistler’s new property rental program that was launched in mid-December and coordinated by the Whistler Housing Authority is working, but it would seem, not quite as quickly or as effectively as the municipality would like. Although Whistler Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden says they knew they would have some difficulty because of when they launched the program.

Currently the Home Run program that matches property owners with businesses looking to house staff has 36 businesses signed up, with around 300 workers looking for accommodation. Only 24 property owners have joined the program, and it’s unknown how many people each property could house. Everything from a room, suite, condo or house is being requested from the municipality.

The Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) has increased enforcement of illegal nightly rentals, where properties are not zoned correctly. In a statement the RMOW says that so far 26 properties in the past year have been investigated and this month the municipality took legal action against one property owner who was renting their residential property to tourists.

Whistler has been working on a complaints basis, where residents can call bylaw to complain if someone has been renting out their property. Bylaw will then look into the matter, and if they believe someone is acting contrary to the zoning, the homeowner will receive a letter asking them to stop renting on a nightly basis. According to Whistler Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden “most of them do, just on receipt of that letter”. Bylaw has received 27 complaints since January 1st 2016 to date. The municipality hasn’t given out fines for those who fail to stop, they sue.

Mayor Wilhelm-Morden said; “We’ve taken one homeowner who said she would stop and then didn’t. We started a lawsuit against her, she then agreed to enter into what’s called a consent order, whereby she agreed that she would no longer rent her property out contrary to the zoning, and she would no longer advertise it as being available for nightly rental on Airbnb or others of those types of platforms… if she contravenes that order, it’s very serious”.

Last week a new study by British real estate agency Nested calculated a landlord in Vancouver would be able to pay off a three-bedroom home worth $1.1-million in 214 months using Airbnb, 100 months faster than with traditional long-term tenants. The study says an owner could make around $2,000 more per month using the popular service over long-term rentals, and assumes properties would be rented at 80% capacity each year.

Several initiatives have been looked at to solve Whistler’s housing crisis, Mayor Wilhelm-Morden says they will be changing the business licence regulations, so that if you are properly zoned for nightly rentals you will need to get a business licence. “That will enable us to more easily monitor who is permitted to rent on a short term basis, and who isn’t” says the Mayor. Whistler will be considering hefty fines for those who are advertising for rent and do not have a business licence.

The RMOW says that ‘there is an inventory of over 6,400 beds of affordable housing restricted to Whistler’s workforce’. There is also a new employee rental housing project under construction, which is expected to be ready later this year. Preliminary designs for a second building are underway, and a third lot is expected to be developed for rental housing which should add around 250 beds to the employee housing inventory, according to the RMOW.

 

 

Filed under: Accomodation, Airbnb, Employee Housing, Housing, RMOW, Whistler, Whistler Housing Authority