CANMORE – A new Statistics Canada study indicates at least 15 per cent of Canmore’s housing market is being used for short-term rentals.
The study, short-term rentals in the Canadian housing market, found short-term rentals that could potentially be for long-term use are relatively small, with most large centres having less than 0.40 per cent of housing inventory being dedicated to short-term use.
However, in tourist hot spots such as Canmore, Whistler and Mont-Tremblant, the percentage of homes for short-term use by visitors can surpass double digits.
“The thing that really popped out was what we highlighted was the ratio relative to the size of the housing market is an order of magnitude higher,” said Owen Vipond, one of the authors of the study and an analyst from Statistics Canada’s retail and service industries division. “It’s such a larger role compared to the larger communities and big cities where you have a more diverse economy where you’re not really focused on tourism as much.
“It’s so many other things with so many other people living there and not working in tourism-related industries that sort of dilutes the size of what you find with short-term rentals compared to the rest of the housing market.”
The new study analyzed more than 100 population centres across the country such as Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa, but populations ultimately varied from as high as 2.79 million in Toronto to as low as 399 in Juan de Fuca on Vancouver Island.
Though relatively small in larger centres, the study found tourist hot spots had a high percentage with Whistler at 35 per cent, Mont-Tremblant at 16.4 per cent and Canmore at 15 per cent of their respective housing stocks.
“A situation in which [potential long-term dwellings] make up more than one-third of housing units can be expected to have a significant impact on a community’s housing market,” stated the study. “However, the nature of the market as a tourist hot spot likely changes the approach to [short-term rentals] for policymakers and other stakeholders. These areas may be disproportionately reliant on [short-term rental] activity since it often supports tourism and stimulates the local economy.”
Vipond noted the study wasn’t designed to show the impacts on housing affordability, but present data that can be used by different levels of government in developing policy.
“We wanted to make data available nationally since that’s something that’s been lacking. Other studies have focused on different key areas, but we want to fill that gap and give everyone some data and then everyone else can make decisions,” he said.
“It’s our role to be neutral, so we wanted to present the data as fairly and accurately as we could, given the data limitations we had, without drawing any conclusions for political decisions in a community.”
He said they used federal census subdivision data, which showed the largest share of short-term rentals were largely “small tourist hot spots, especially ski hills where in a small town it’s the one major business activity.”
“It’s to present to people, especially regarding the tourist challenge, the kind of stakes that are different. It may be an obvious choice for many to prioritize affordable housing, but for tourist hotspots that play a significant role in the strength of the economy, you might have to think twice about what you really want to do and should you cut down short-term rentals if that’s going to hurt your economy to the point that incomes fall and unemployment goes up.
“You might have tougher decisions to make in the short-term, but it can be a signal from the economy in the long-term to invest in increasing housing supply or commercial accommodation capacity.”
Tourism Canmore-Kananaskis data previously outlined more visitor spending contributed $763 million in 2022, but when excluding accommodation it was $322.75 million. The total spending for 685 tourist homes was $26.5 million.
The Canmore retail gap analysis and light industrial and commercial land review study had visitor retail spending in 2022 at $256 million, while seasonal resident households were $25 million.
Locally, the Town of Canmore’s Livability Task Force used 2023 utility accounts to get a snapshot of potential full- and part-time residents in the community. Of the 8,578 residential units in Canmore, 2,260 were potentially not used by full-time residents.
The task force’s research also found 2,150 residential properties had non-Canmore mailing addresses in 2023.
The Statistics Canada study notes it looks at short-term rentals that could re-enter the long-term housing market. It looked at units not being used as a primary residence, but potentially could be returned to long-term housing.
It indicated the estimated potential long-term dwellings in Canada was 107,266 in 2023 – roughly less than one per cent of housing in the country. Though the share of short-term housing was relatively low in metropolitan areas, it was “higher in tourist areas, particularly around ski hills.”
It emphasized the number of short-term rentals was an estimate rather than a specific count.
“The [potential long-term dwelling] estimates provide a more reliable indicator than assuming all Canadian STR listings, over 355,000 in 2023, have the capacity to function as long-term dwellings,” it stated.
Data showed short-term rental activity declining by 19.2 per cent from 2019-21, but the potential long-term dwellings decreased by 28.1 per cent at the same time.
“As mentioned previously, the decline in [potential long-term dwellings] during the pandemic was more severe than the overall decrease in [short-term rental] activity,” according to the study. “This greater decline in the [potential long-term dwellings] subset may support the notion that these units could be used as long-term dwellings. After the decline in tourism during the pandemic, many property owners may have converted their [short-term rentals] to long-term rentals.
“This could also explain why 2022 marked a low point in the proportion of [potential long-term dwellings], since many thousands of units may have still been tied up in 12-month leases during the onset of the recovery. However, this assumption could be confirmed only with property ownership data, which are not available for this analysis.”
Data showed Canada’s housing stock at 15.5 million units at the end of 2023, with 0.69 per cent being potential long-term dwellings – an increase from 0.41 per cent in 2017.
For the study, a short-term rental was used between one and 28 days. It noted there were several reasons why short-term rentals were not being used for long-term housing, such as the commercial aspect, but that some may be used for long-term housing.
“The role of short-term rentals in Canada’s housing challenges remains a subject of ongoing policy debate in many Canadian cities. While there is a widespread notion that such rentals limit the availability of long-term housing, empirical analysis of their impacts has produced mixed results,” states the study.
Vipond highlighted it’s ultimately up to local decision-makers to determine what they feel is best for their communities, with any data from the study possibly helping with information.
“Potentially, if you increase your commercial accommodation, you can draw the tourists here and so your tourists and residents are competing for the same rooms, but it’s much easier to say this than do it. The stakes are quite different for a tourist town like Canmore and Banff compared to Toronto,” Vipond said.
“It’s ultimately going to be about priorities and choices the community wants to make. Our aim was to provide concrete data, so every local stakeholder can make choices for themselves.”
DATA OF POTENTIAL LONG-TERM DWELLINGS BEING USED FOR SHORT-TERM USE
- WHISTLER: 8,611 HOUSING UNITS – 3,016 potential long-term dwellings – 35 per cent
- MONT-TREMBLANT: 6,468 HOUSING UNITS – 1,058 potential long-term dwellings – 16.4 per cent
- CANMORE: 8,007 HOUSING UNITS – 1,202 potential long-term dwellings – 15 per cent
- BLUE MOUNTAINS: 5,007 HOUSING UNITS – 662 potential long-term dwellings – 13.2 per cent
- TORONTO: 2,270,741 HOUSING UNITS – 8,266 potential long-term dwellings – 0.36 per cent
- VANCOUVER: 1,048,029 HOUSING UNITS – 4,714 potential long-term dwellings – 0.45 per cent
- CALGARY: 565,286 HOUSING UNITS – 1,846 potential long-term dwellings – 0.33 per cent
BOW VALLEY DATA
- CANMORE: 2,067 short-term units; 1,202 potential long-term dwellings; 8,007 total housing units; 15.01 per cent ratio
- BANFF: 199 short-term units; 65 potential long-term dwellings; 2,995 total housing units; 2.17 per cent ratio
- MD OF BIGHORN: 369 short-term units; 220 potential long-term dwellings; 860 total units; 25.58 per cent ratio
SHORT-TERM RENTALS AND POTENTIAL LONG-TERM DWELLINGS IN BRACKETS
- 2017: 214,808 (58,441) – 14,333,148 Canadian housing units
- 2018: 267,634 (74,083) – 14,527,043 Canadian housing units
- 2019: 303,521 (88,494) – 14,722,631 Canadian housing units
- 2020: 266,444 (72,796) – 14,890,801 Canadian housing units
- 2021: 245,109 (63.589) – 15,067,760 Canadian housing units
- 2022: 278,841 (70,139) – 15,264,940 Canadian housing units
- 2023: 355,070 (107,266) – 15,495,361 Canadian housing units
ALBERTA DATA OF POTENTIAL LONG-TERM DWELLINGS BEING USED FOR SHORT-TERM USE
- ALBERTA AS OF 2021 FEDERAL CENSUS: 0.56 per cent
- HOUSING UNITS: 1,690,412
- POTENTIAL LONG-TERM DWELLINGS: 9,514
- All data from Statistics Canada, AirDNA
