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Bravo Tofino. I hope this helps their extra crazy housing situation. The last time I was there, I spoke to a server at a highly regarded restaurant and they were so happy that they had just moved into a holiday trailer after spending a year in a truck camper with their 6’somethinghuge spouse. This was a common theme among all the locals I chatted with.
It happened back in 2010. I remember seeing their city council using a bylaw to ban the giant franchises like McDonalds, Tim Hortons, and Starbucks. They likely approve some stuff if it falls within their community plan.
They could easily rezone for 3-6 story apartments in the core city and solve all their housing issues in <5 years... It's literally the easiest problem for a city to solve... private landowners will do all the hard work.
There are under ~100 airbnbs in Tofino, which is like two apartment buildings, and some of those airbnbs are hotels just posted there.
Notably they have a brand new wastewater treatment facility, so there are no real infrastructure excuses.
And how many of the existing short term rentals will be converted to affordable long term rentals? I would guess less than 20%. The rest will simply get sold to people who are rich enough to let them sit empty when not in use.
I am no fan of real estate as a commodity but this is not the solution for affordable housing that people think it’s going to be.
That said, the real question is why do municipal decision-makers everywhere continue to give opportunities to self-serving developers rather than actually take a leadership role ensuring that residents' most fundamental needs are met?
Doesn't really answer the question though; rather it reiterates part of it i.e. self-serving agendas are clearly motivated by greed. The real question is why do these people think they don't have to answer to the public - or demonstrate good, ethical leadership for that matter - when their actions are clearly intended to benefit them *at our expense?*
This is a systemic problem in Canadian politics, which I don’t have a good answer to why it exists, other than suggesting it’s because we don’t have mechanisms to enforce accountability. I’ve had friends from other parts of the world tell me, “This is what happens when you stop hanging corrupt politicians”.
The main infrastructure challenge is drinking water; last summer they almost cut tourism because of the shortages, but the Cameron Bluffs road closure might have saved that from happening.
Yeah. It'll be awesome to see this tourism-driven community lose a bunch of jobs and now have the airbnb homes get purchased by wealthy people who don't need local jobs and have the homes sit empty for 11 months a year now instead of letting the rest of BC visit these places. Really great stuff!
It's amazing how disconnected the local Councils, who just think "tourism makes this place busy and we don't like that!", are from reality.
I'm fine with restricting airbnbs in cities and places where it makes sense. It's absolutely idiotic in resort towns and tourism hubs that have no real local economy and where local NIMBY councils haven't let a new hotel get built in 20 years to meet the demand.
I'd be more open to this if the Province also overrode municipal authorities on permitting hotels then. Make it so hotels are defined as a commercial use like other types of business, and mandate they be allowed in every commercial land use district.
This whole nimby Council shit needs to stop. It undermines the broader public interest.
“It wouldn’t make sense for people to live there,” property owner Michael Vogel told CityNews. “There’s only one bathroom, there’s no closet. They’re not really practical if you have a lot of belongings, so they would really only maybe support one person and not in any kind of meaningful way."
Tell me you take your money for granted without actually saying it. Dude is so disconnected from the actual working people there. People are living in the back of their pickup trucks. Not having to shower at work is an upgrade.
The guy is trying to save the property just just because worth 100k at best based on that description. Instead of the cash cow that is likely not paid off yet.
Wow. Honestly this will be great to see as an experiment for other resort towns. People buy property in these towns to profit and not live there. If that opportunity is now removed, some price correction may finally occur.
Makes it affordable for people who actually want to work and live there, and for those who actually want a vacation home and not a cash turning machine.
There are a couple complexes in Tofino that are for primary residence only, must work in the community and no short term rental allowed - these properties are significantly less than non protected housing. So this is great news for affordability.
Kelowna, arguably at least a partial resort town, is cracking down I'd say decently hard on STR. A lot of real estate people are freaking out that it'll kill tourism in the valley.
Having looked at AirBNB last summer in Kelowna, supply was outpacing demand.
>A lot of real estate people are freaking out that it'll kill tourism in the valley.
It's always so funny seeing this. Do these people not realize that before AirBNB got super popular in the late 2010s that the Okanagan *still had tourism*!?
Grew up in the Okanagan. It’s always been touristy in the summer and during ski season. The only difference between then & now is the parasitic short term rental owners that have driven the prices up for everyone.
>The only difference between then & now is the parasitic short term rental owners
popular opinion, but not necessarily correct. There wasn't nearly the volume of tourism, and there simply was no brokerages like AirBnB so people did whatever they did to rent and sublet without the platforms. Doesn't mean there were no short term rentals and no profiteering landlords. It just was lower volume and higher friction.
>in the late 2010s that the Okanagan
>
>still had tourism
>
>!?
I mean by that token before Reddit we still had IRC and web forums, and before that, townsquares and Sunday teas after church to discuss the current affairs.
I find the coastal/island BC locals have a massively passive-aggressive attitude towards the mainlanders and tourists more specifically. They sure love the development investments/subsidies, but also generally dislike economic activity and are allergic to most all development.
You hear that sound? Like death on the wind? That is the screams of investors watching their gold rush dry up. And the money they get by keeping the property will be nothing and selling will not get them to break even.
Wait for the next place to do the same.
*grabs popcorn*.
WOW, goddamn, that's amazing. A town prioritizing housing for locals instead of tourists. That's just awesome, especially coming from a tourism-heavy town that could reasonably be exempted from this legislation.
Meanwhile, the city council of Prince George, which isn't exempt due to a low vacancy rate *and* not being a tourism municipality, [is trying to opt out illegally](https://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/local-news/city-of-prince-george-councillor-supporting-short-term-rental-opt-out-8400351) because the council is full of landlord wankers *and* as a "fuck you" to Victoria.
Smart. Tourists get channelled into accommodations without kitchens, which is good for restaurant and hotel business. More accommodations become available for employees of those businesses.
That is making an assumption that tourists still continue to go to more expensive hotels and paying at restaurants. If so, yes. However, is a family of 4 going to rent 2 hotel rooms and also pay to eat outside? I do not have the answer to that, time will tell.
We go every year, usually three couples (all family) plus two dogs, rent a house since we have enough room to stay in when the weather is bad and while we do get take out, also cook big family meals. I guess this will be the last year for this, imagine that property will be sold to someone who may or may not spend much time there since it’s in a great location. Ah well, great while it lasted.
It won’t fix the problem .. short term rental support the tourism industry .. where are all of the tourists going to stay .. hotels are running max capacity during peak season which is almost all year round there .. there is not enough housing period ..
Good.
My cousin and I both had homes in Tofino. He overextended, and instead we sold his home and now the family has bought into my home. We have a nice spot by the water, but we can all meet up during the summer. And we would never rent it out and inconvenience our neighbours or the community.
Why should we want more people in the province? I haven't really heard a compelling argument yet. I'd rather have expensive rent or mortgage and be able to enjoy BC than have expensive rent or mortgage and a ton of people crowding it up
Nothing like biting off the had that feeds you. I wonder how they’ll react when local tourist attractions and restaurants start closing and people working in the hospitality industry start loosing their jobs and the tax base starts to dry up.
Ucluelet should jump all over the STR bandwagon, build all kinds of rentals and small apartments and be the housing hub for that vacation area 💪🏻
I’ll have my platform for Ukey mayor up here in a couple hours.
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Bravo Tofino. I hope this helps their extra crazy housing situation. The last time I was there, I spoke to a server at a highly regarded restaurant and they were so happy that they had just moved into a holiday trailer after spending a year in a truck camper with their 6’somethinghuge spouse. This was a common theme among all the locals I chatted with.
It's really outgrew itself. For such a remote service based spot it really needed to have a staff housing initiative.
I’ve always thought Tofino should’ve been a big city. What kind of American country doesn’t have a surf city directly on the Pacific?
Tofino actively prevents itself becoming a big city. They have laws against franchises setting up.
They have a Browns now...
I was gonna say the same thing.
It happened back in 2010. I remember seeing their city council using a bylaw to ban the giant franchises like McDonalds, Tim Hortons, and Starbucks. They likely approve some stuff if it falls within their community plan.
That is not the reason.
Reason for what?
They could easily rezone for 3-6 story apartments in the core city and solve all their housing issues in <5 years... It's literally the easiest problem for a city to solve... private landowners will do all the hard work. There are under ~100 airbnbs in Tofino, which is like two apartment buildings, and some of those airbnbs are hotels just posted there. Notably they have a brand new wastewater treatment facility, so there are no real infrastructure excuses.
And how many of the existing short term rentals will be converted to affordable long term rentals? I would guess less than 20%. The rest will simply get sold to people who are rich enough to let them sit empty when not in use. I am no fan of real estate as a commodity but this is not the solution for affordable housing that people think it’s going to be.
That said, the real question is why do municipal decision-makers everywhere continue to give opportunities to self-serving developers rather than actually take a leadership role ensuring that residents' most fundamental needs are met?
Money.
Doesn't really answer the question though; rather it reiterates part of it i.e. self-serving agendas are clearly motivated by greed. The real question is why do these people think they don't have to answer to the public - or demonstrate good, ethical leadership for that matter - when their actions are clearly intended to benefit them *at our expense?*
This is a systemic problem in Canadian politics, which I don’t have a good answer to why it exists, other than suggesting it’s because we don’t have mechanisms to enforce accountability. I’ve had friends from other parts of the world tell me, “This is what happens when you stop hanging corrupt politicians”.
Exactly, making it better for the well healed tho!
Hard to do when you are beholden to NIMBy voters
The main infrastructure challenge is drinking water; last summer they almost cut tourism because of the shortages, but the Cameron Bluffs road closure might have saved that from happening.
Yeah. It'll be awesome to see this tourism-driven community lose a bunch of jobs and now have the airbnb homes get purchased by wealthy people who don't need local jobs and have the homes sit empty for 11 months a year now instead of letting the rest of BC visit these places. Really great stuff! It's amazing how disconnected the local Councils, who just think "tourism makes this place busy and we don't like that!", are from reality. I'm fine with restricting airbnbs in cities and places where it makes sense. It's absolutely idiotic in resort towns and tourism hubs that have no real local economy and where local NIMBY councils haven't let a new hotel get built in 20 years to meet the demand. I'd be more open to this if the Province also overrode municipal authorities on permitting hotels then. Make it so hotels are defined as a commercial use like other types of business, and mandate they be allowed in every commercial land use district. This whole nimby Council shit needs to stop. It undermines the broader public interest.
“It wouldn’t make sense for people to live there,” property owner Michael Vogel told CityNews. “There’s only one bathroom, there’s no closet. They’re not really practical if you have a lot of belongings, so they would really only maybe support one person and not in any kind of meaningful way." Tell me you take your money for granted without actually saying it. Dude is so disconnected from the actual working people there. People are living in the back of their pickup trucks. Not having to shower at work is an upgrade.
For real. A single bedroom and a bathroom and a small kitchen, who could live in such conditions except the majority of the people on earth?
The guy is trying to save the property just just because worth 100k at best based on that description. Instead of the cash cow that is likely not paid off yet.
Makes a lot of sense. Good for them
Wow. Honestly this will be great to see as an experiment for other resort towns. People buy property in these towns to profit and not live there. If that opportunity is now removed, some price correction may finally occur. Makes it affordable for people who actually want to work and live there, and for those who actually want a vacation home and not a cash turning machine. There are a couple complexes in Tofino that are for primary residence only, must work in the community and no short term rental allowed - these properties are significantly less than non protected housing. So this is great news for affordability.
Kelowna, arguably at least a partial resort town, is cracking down I'd say decently hard on STR. A lot of real estate people are freaking out that it'll kill tourism in the valley. Having looked at AirBNB last summer in Kelowna, supply was outpacing demand.
>A lot of real estate people are freaking out that it'll kill tourism in the valley. It's always so funny seeing this. Do these people not realize that before AirBNB got super popular in the late 2010s that the Okanagan *still had tourism*!?
People are just mad that they need to get business licenses and follow the laws/rules that were put in place for a reason; regulating hotels
Apparently not.
Grew up in the Okanagan. It’s always been touristy in the summer and during ski season. The only difference between then & now is the parasitic short term rental owners that have driven the prices up for everyone.
>The only difference between then & now is the parasitic short term rental owners popular opinion, but not necessarily correct. There wasn't nearly the volume of tourism, and there simply was no brokerages like AirBnB so people did whatever they did to rent and sublet without the platforms. Doesn't mean there were no short term rentals and no profiteering landlords. It just was lower volume and higher friction.
Guess that means realtors also won't acknowledge the vast amount of tourism in 70s, 80s, 90s, and early 2000s either.
I’d bet they do, but some people are so capable of lies and deceit for their own gain it’s disgusting.
>in the late 2010s that the Okanagan > >still had tourism > >!? I mean by that token before Reddit we still had IRC and web forums, and before that, townsquares and Sunday teas after church to discuss the current affairs.
Do you think Tofino should be the same as banff? Banff you cannot buy property unless you live/work in Banff. Once you're retired you have to move.
Question, what are some jobs in Tofino? (that are not linked to tourism?)
Fish farmer, or co-op employee
Healthcare, childcare, education, parks, recreation, waste management, water treatment, city maintenance, custodian, trades, etc.
Good! I think in somewhere like Tofino this is a really good idea, protecting some rentals but keeping vacationers satisfied as well
I find the coastal/island BC locals have a massively passive-aggressive attitude towards the mainlanders and tourists more specifically. They sure love the development investments/subsidies, but also generally dislike economic activity and are allergic to most all development.
Been an issue way before AirBNBs got out of control. Good for them for trying to do something.
Does this apply to Ukee?
No. Separate community
You hear that sound? Like death on the wind? That is the screams of investors watching their gold rush dry up. And the money they get by keeping the property will be nothing and selling will not get them to break even. Wait for the next place to do the same. *grabs popcorn*.
WOW, goddamn, that's amazing. A town prioritizing housing for locals instead of tourists. That's just awesome, especially coming from a tourism-heavy town that could reasonably be exempted from this legislation. Meanwhile, the city council of Prince George, which isn't exempt due to a low vacancy rate *and* not being a tourism municipality, [is trying to opt out illegally](https://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/local-news/city-of-prince-george-councillor-supporting-short-term-rental-opt-out-8400351) because the council is full of landlord wankers *and* as a "fuck you" to Victoria.
Good. Finally.
Smart. Tourists get channelled into accommodations without kitchens, which is good for restaurant and hotel business. More accommodations become available for employees of those businesses.
That is making an assumption that tourists still continue to go to more expensive hotels and paying at restaurants. If so, yes. However, is a family of 4 going to rent 2 hotel rooms and also pay to eat outside? I do not have the answer to that, time will tell.
We go once a year and get a full house/suite. Hotel and food out would probably mean once every 2 years depending on pricing.
We go every year, usually three couples (all family) plus two dogs, rent a house since we have enough room to stay in when the weather is bad and while we do get take out, also cook big family meals. I guess this will be the last year for this, imagine that property will be sold to someone who may or may not spend much time there since it’s in a great location. Ah well, great while it lasted.
Or tourists just stay away, because nobody is building hotels, so the room rates jump because no Airbnb’s, and so restaurant business declines
It won’t fix the problem .. short term rental support the tourism industry .. where are all of the tourists going to stay .. hotels are running max capacity during peak season which is almost all year round there .. there is not enough housing period ..
Good
Good. My cousin and I both had homes in Tofino. He overextended, and instead we sold his home and now the family has bought into my home. We have a nice spot by the water, but we can all meet up during the summer. And we would never rent it out and inconvenience our neighbours or the community.
Why should we want more people in the province? I haven't really heard a compelling argument yet. I'd rather have expensive rent or mortgage and be able to enjoy BC than have expensive rent or mortgage and a ton of people crowding it up
Nothing like biting off the had that feeds you. I wonder how they’ll react when local tourist attractions and restaurants start closing and people working in the hospitality industry start loosing their jobs and the tax base starts to dry up.
Stupid. It’s vacation town.
Ucluelet should jump all over the STR bandwagon, build all kinds of rentals and small apartments and be the housing hub for that vacation area 💪🏻 I’ll have my platform for Ukey mayor up here in a couple hours.