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Airbnb has acquired nearly 30,000 homes in Quebec

Airbnb has acquired nearly 30,000 homes in Quebec

Airbnb, like other tourist rental platforms, should be banned in Quebec because it is exacerbating the housing crisis by monopolizing 29,482 apartments, 79% of which are rented illegally, according to tenant advocacy organizations.


Although the short-term rental giant has announced its intention to remove all illegal ads from its website, this is not enough, according to the Regroupement desissions logement et Association de tenants du Québec (RCLALQ), as even apartments registered with the authorities have Impact on rental inventory.

“We see that Airbnb is a multinational company that does not comply with regulations in several places around the world. On the contrary, it allows its users to circumvent the rules,” denounces Cedric Dussault, spokesperson for RCLALQ, who doubts Airbnb’s good faith to comply with Quebec law.

Even before the deadly fire in Old Montreal, in which seven people perished, many after illegally renting apartments on Airbnb, RCLALQ had commissioned a study on Airbnb’s impact across the province.

We know that in some places, 22% of rental inventory is on Airbnb (like in Saint-Ferréol-les-Neiges). Other tourist areas are also affected by this effect: Saint-Adolphe-d’Howard (17.4%), Mont-Tremblant (13.7%), the Montreal boroughs of Faubourg Saint-Laurent (11.7%), Plateau (3.1%) and Peter. McGill (Old Montreal) (4.1%).

These black and white numbers show that Airbnb alone is responsible for a significant portion of the housing shortage. In most areas, if Airbnb rental units were not lost in tourist accommodations, the vacancy rate would be at or above the equilibrium threshold, Mr. Dusseau argues.

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According to him, certification does not solve everything, because the crux of the problem is not illegality, but the transfer of rental inventory for tourist purposes.

“We are talking here about tenants who are legally evicted to rent out their homes to tourists, or investors who buy homes for the sole purpose of renting them out on Airbnb. Legal or not, platforms like Airbnb are a disaster that exacerbates the housing crisis exponentially,” insists Cedric. Dassault.

Airbnb announced that all listings without a company de l’industrie Touristique du Québec (CITQ) registration number will be removed on Tuesday. But at the end of the day, a few houses disappeared from the platform. Listings that previously did not have a registration number now have one, even for apartments located in areas where tourist rentals are prohibited, such as Old Montreal or Verdun.

At the end of Tuesday, Airbnb did not answer our questions about it.