Background: In April 2019, 1 in 50 private dwellings in Charlottetown (1.93%) were listed on AirBNB making us the 2nd highest proportion among Canadian cities. Since 2016, Charlottetown has had a 200% increase in listings. Over half of those listings are for 2-3 bedroom units, and 60% of all listings have a host with multiple listings. This makes it clear that short term rentals are not just home-sharing, but an immense economic incentive to remove long-term tenants in favour of becoming a commercial property which is destabilizing our neighbourhoods. The lack of regulatory action has caused listings (and evictions) to climb rapidly and has allowed our communities to lose the neighbours that made these areas so great to visit in the first place.

We petition the Municipal Government of Charlottetown to create a by-law to restrict short-term rentals to only be operated from your principal residence – the home where you live for a minimum of 185 days a year, and is the address you use for bills, identification, taxes, etc. This allows flexibility for true home-sharing, while restricting multiple listings for commercial use.