Halifax regulation disqualifies 1,300 short-term rentals from operating come September

Changes are coming to short-term rentals in the Halifax Regional Municipality.

As of Sept. 1, the changes would ban short-term rental units, such as Airbnbs and VRBO units, from operating in residential zones unless the owner also lives there.

“It has the biggest impact in peninsula Halifax and urban Dartmouth because that’s where the biggest concentration of these seems to be,” says Halifax Deputy Mayor Sam Austin.

According to a report by municipality staff, there are 2,000 short-term rentals in Halifax, 1,300 of them are in zones that would disqualify them under the new rules.

The regulations are being welcomed by the tourism industry.

”We’ve been advocating for the need for regulations for a number of years,” says Ross Jefferson, the president and CEO of Discover Halifax.

Tourism is worth $1.3 billion to the economy.

Jefferson admits removing short-term rentals will cause some short-term pain for the industry; losses could reach $50 million dollars in the next year.

“We know that during certain times of the year there’s not enough rooms available for the visitors that want to come and visit Halifax. We’ve simply done the math to calculate, with the reduction of supply what the total loss sales would be during those periods,” Jefferson says.

Secondly, while speculative, Jefferson says there could be situations where people just don’t come to the city because their favourite accommodations are no longer available.

He expects new hotels will eventually be built to fill the vacancy void.

The Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia (TIANS) is also in favour of the new rules.

“We have a terrific product. The accommodation piece is part of it and as demand grows, the market will take care of itself,” said Darlene Grant-Fiander, TIANS president.

“No other industry would say we need capacity so let’s let everybody operate without regulation it just wouldn’t happen.”

The province will require all short-term rentals to be registered by April 1.