More pushback on Halifax council's new rules targeting short-term rentals

There’s more pushback about the new potential rules targeting short-term rentals in Halifax.

Last Tuesday, Halifax Regional Council approved bylaw amendments they say will establish consistent policies and regulations for short-term rentals in the city.

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.

Property owners argue the rules are too stringent and don't give them enough time to decide what to do with their rental units.

Nicole Pittman is one of them. She and her husband just renovated a property adjacent to their home in Purcells Cove, N.S., and plan to run it as an Airbnb.

“We wanted to keep this property in our family so we had something for our children to potentially move into in the future and the way to make that happen would be to short-term rental it,” Pittman says.

New regulations approved last week by Halifax Regional Council may prohibit that from happening.

Shawn Cleary is one of three councillors who voted against the regulations that are set to come into effect on Sept. 1.

“We know that short-term rentals need to be regulated,” Cleary says.

He says there is a need to increase the housing supply, but he’d like to find some middle ground.

“What some other jurisdictions have done is they have regulated the use of them by the number of days you can rent them out,” says Cleary.

That regulation would suit Jillian Hann just fine. She owns an Airbnb in Sambro, N.S.

“My family uses it like a cottage property, so we actually stay there a lot of the time ourselves and use it as our second property. We’re not well off enough to just leave it empty,” Hann says.

Of the 2,000 listings available last August, 1,300 of those are in zones that would prohibit short-term rentals under the new rules.

Despite that, housing advocate Michael Kabalan says the new rules won't help low income families find a place to live.

“While it may solve the availability issue, we don’t expect it to solve the affordability issue that many Nova Scotians are facing today,” Kabalan says.

As for Nicole Pittman, the future of her new rental is up in the air.

“To be determined. We’re starting to talk about what options could make sense. We’re not sure if we’ll have to sell the property,” says Pittman.

The new short-term rental regulations are not written in stone.

Some councillors have asked for supplementary information that may lead to some tweaks of the rules.

Cleary says that will happen in the coming months.