County News
County will investigate Airbnb
Angus Ross is concerned. He sees an increasing number of whole family homes used as short-term vacation rentals. He’s especially concerned about those whose owners use websites like AirBNB.
Ross gave a deputation to a committee of council on Thursday expressing some of the reasons for his concerns, including an unreasonably rising cost of housing, lack of long-term rental stock and a degradation of neighbourhoods as some residents find themselves surrounded by vacation rentals instead of neighbours.
Councillor Lenny Epstein, who has publicly made it known he has income property advertised on AirBNB, recused himself from the conversation. The rest of council, expressing concern, sent an order to staff to investigate potential opportunities to limit, tax or regulate these rentals.
Pick up the Times on Wednesday for more details.
Could not agree more that the number of short term rental accommodations is causing some serious issues both with the increase in property values which is starting to resemble Toronto, and lessening opportunity for locals to obtain reasonable rentals. I would go as far as saying that those who are either purchasing properties for investment purposes such as short term rentals, and or who own properties and do not reside in those same properties less than 6 months on a full time basis, should have a special property tax applied to them as well.
Heh Council, give your head a shake… All I read about is how this municipality is short on funds. These Air BnBs bring in alot of income to the County. Visitors from across the province and the rest of Canada visit the wineries, bike and stop in all the small towns spending money on groceries and restaurants etc.
Adding more red tape will dampen this income and cost the needed jobs that have been created by these guests visiting the County. Quit being so short sighted.
I don’t think any schools are closing because the house down the street rents out for the summer. Thats ridiculous.
Have the feeling a lot of people don’t actually know what AirBnB is, so naturally they are terrified of it and it must be the boogeyman.
I agree! We certainly didn’t sign up to live beside a property that is used for vacations only! Having screaming, excited kids running around the yard in the early mornings to the adults partying in the late evening is getting old! If they lived there full time, they would be much more respectful, or we could at least have conversations about respect! Short term rental properties should have to apply to be changed from residential to commercial properties so the people living near them have an chance to say “no”!
I just left s rental and it was horrible live wires under a deck. We where given plastic lawn furniture with mold on them also the basement is never aired out I am sure there is mold. it had a damp odour me and my elderly mom could not sleep there.the top deck railing was loose there was mold in the second apt upstairs Our first night My body was on fire and had migraine ls we left the place and lived at our house that was under construction at night and stayed at the rental duringbthevday and spent most of the time out side so I wouldn’t get head aches. The property
Was not what it looks like on there advertisement online it had a huge run down shed an eye sore from the neighbor next door, the fire place was broken, on the other side of the property had junk dumped by the owner all along the fence everything was just not updated since the 60s I couldn’t rent this house to a dog let alone s human being. I think that the rentals should be inspected by how old the home is.
It is about time they started investigating. This has put the housing market so high that our children are leaving the county as they can not afford to purchase holmes where they have been raised their whole lives. This is why we are losing our schools. Also if they are running a business they should have to be zoned commercial and follow all the bi-laws set by county and the fire laws of Ontario.
I agree there are too many low cost homes being turned into short term high cost rentals. The County needs to consider the hollowing out of our neighborhoods.
Bernice Page
Picton resident
The cost of housing in the County was high before we had seasonal rentals. For those of us who are County people having a seasonal rental i.e. Airbnb helps us pay the taxes and to keep our property in good shape. We live on the property where we have an airbnb. We have rules and all of our guests have been respectful and quiet. Our space is small so we don’t have more than 4 people at a time. They spend money eating out and going to the beach. They visit the wineries. Many are cyclists who ride around the County Perhaps some seasonal rentals are owned by people who live out of town who can’t monitor the activity of the guests.
I agree that it is difficult to find longterm rental at a reasonable price. Problem in the County is that there is no longterm work and people have to drive to Belleville, Napanee or Kingston for good paying jobs. The County needs to look at subsidized housing and they need to do it soon.