Airbnbs in Calgary have gone largely unchecked, but that could soon change

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There aren’t a lot of rules when it comes to short-term rentals like Airbnb or VRBO in Calgary.

It’s not a free-for-all system, and homeowners can’t rent out a space without a business license anymore, but requirements for floor plans, fire extinguishers, and smoke alarms within the rented house or unit don’t kick in until the new year.

The framework, some say, is lacking heavily.

“Alberta and Calgary in particular, does take a laissez-faire approach to rentals. There’s that free-market idealism,” Lindsay Tedds, an economics professor at the University of Calgary, told Daily Hive Urbanized.

“I’m not saying that that’s the right approach to take but there generally is that sort of neoliberal approach to things.”

Earlier this year, Tedds was approached by two City Councillors to conduct a study and look into rules and regulations for possible new frameworks when it comes to Airbnbs, VRBOs, and other short-term rentals in Calgary.

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She’s been studying the short-term rental market for the last few years and examining the regulatory frameworks of 25 jurisdictions across Canada.

What comes out of the study will shape the recommendations for regulations for short-term rentals in the near future.

What’s needed for short-term rentals in Calgary?

Calgary’s got a unique market when it comes to these types of rentals, according to Ward 12’s Evan Spencer, one of the councillors involved in the study.

One of the things that makes it different is that a lot of the listings aren’t permanent.

For example, when people leave Calgary in the winter for places like Arizona, they put their place up and come back to it during the warmer months.

Other times, people will also temporarily list a portion of their house during the Stampede.

“That’s going to require a more surgical and thoughtful approach with regulation,” Spencer told Daily Hive Urbanized, referring to Calgary’s market.

“Personally, I would like to see some thoughtfulness around where short-term rentals make a lot of sense, and where, maybe they are prone to more disruption.”

“No Airbnb” sign at the main entrance of a condo building in downtown Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

There are different places in the city where it seems to make more sense to have Airbnbs, like in areas that are close to public transit, event centres, the Saddledome, or the Stampede Grounds.

But then, Spencer said, some of the community concerns get connected to things like a party house in the middle of a suburban neighbourhood.

“I’d love it if we could get to the point where we’re being a little bit more specific and even potentially looking at like zoning different parts of the city for a little bit more focus,” he said.

But that may not be feasible.

“I’m not sure that the trade-offs will allow because that with that, those extra layers, comes extra administration, comes extra complication,” Spencer said.

“We’ll have to see what we’ll have to get that balance right. But I certainly am going to encourage us to at least consider that.”

Why now?

Even though Airbnbs and VRBOs have been around in Calgary for a while, Tedds said it didn’t make sense to start looking into more structured policies until now.

Regulations were first implemented in February 2020, but, only included things like basic licensing, location awareness, and that they passed health and safety regulations.

With the market starting to grow in Calgary, Tedds said now is the right time to reopen that conversation.

“You sort of need to hit some size before you have to really think about how you want to regulate it, and we’re actually right at that size now,” Tedds said.

“We’re probably at about 4,300 unique listings. So we’re not Toronto, we’re not Montreal, we’re not Vancouver. It’s still a very small market.”

With Calgary’s market being smaller, the same things that work in other cities won’t necessarily work here.

“Hopefully what we can do is, because it is constantly changing, the short-term rental market, based on demand and changes in zoning and all sorts of things,” Spencer said.

“We’re hoping that we can kind of use some foresight and whatever we end up voting on as Council will have a little bit of future-proofing in it.”

The survey closes on December 31, 2023, and the conversation regarding new regulatory framework for short-term rentals will go to Council sometime in 2024.

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