(Montreal) According to a report by the Regroupement des Comités Logement et Associations de Tenants du Québec (RCLALQ), 79% of rentals offered on Airbnb in Quebec last month were not certified. For its part, the housing rental platform indicated on Tuesday that it was disabling ads without a registration number on its site.
Of the 29,482 listings posted on Airbnb’s website in February, 23,245 were uncertified according to the report titled “Airbnb: A Rampage of Quebec Rental Stock.”
The authors indicate that it was in Laval, with a rate of 95%, that the highest proportion of illegal advertisements was found.
But Airbnb argues that RCLAQ’s estimates “are inaccurate.”
The Canadian Press asked Airbnb spokesperson Matt McNama to provide data regarding the number of rental listings that were uncertified last month.
“We don’t publish the number of listings in a city, but I can confirm the number is inaccurate,” he replied.
Beyond the proportion of illegal ads, it is the consequences of this practice that worry the authors of the report, who accuse Airbnb of being responsible for a significant part of the housing shortage.
“In most regions, if the units rented on Airbnb had not been lost to tourist accommodation, the vacancy rate would be in equilibrium or above the equilibrium threshold,” said Cédric Dussault, co – spokesperson for the RCLALQ.
Below this rate, there is a housing shortage, as in Montreal where the rate was 2.3% in the fall of 2022.
Last week, home rental platform Airbnb said it would remove all listings that don’t provide an official registration number from its site and add a field that will require this permit for all listings in Quebec. .
Airbnb’s decision was announced after a meeting with Tourism Minister Caroline Proulx.
The Canadian Press found on Tuesday that Airbnb continued to post ads without an official registration number.
On Tuesday afternoon, Airbnb spokesperson Matt McNama wrote to La Presse Canadienne that “all short-term rental listings without an Airbnb registration number will be disabled today” and that “to continue hosting short-term stays, Hosts must request a registration number and add it to their listing page.
Matt McNama added that “hosts can obtain a registration number from the Corporation de l’industrie touristique du Québec website.”
“Certification doesn’t solve everything. The heart of the problem is not illegality, but the transformation of the rental stock for tourist purposes. We are talking here about tenants who are legally evicted to rent accommodation to tourists or investors who buy accommodation for the sole purpose of renting it on Airbnb,” said Cédric Dussault.
The RCLALQ asks the government of Quebec to simply ban short-term rentals in any residence and to ban digital rental platforms like Airbnb.
“In the absence of a complete ban, the RCLALQ also proposes several other measures to limit the harmful effects of these platforms, such as the prohibition of commercial tourist use of the rental stock and the repeal of the article of the Civil Code of Quebec which allows the eviction of tenants for change of assignment”, specified the co-spokesperson of the RCLALQ.
Search teams found seven bodies in the rubble of the building.
Asked to comment on the RCLALQ report which finds that Airbnb contributes to the housing crisis, the office of the Minister of Housing France-Élaine Duranceau indicated that “the tightening of the rules will certainly offer a little more ‘oxygen’ to municipalities. That said, we are actively continuing to find and provide other solutions to improve the situation. »
