Airbnb Threatens Rent Prices

Montrealers rejoice as sanitary restrictions have been lifted and travel is over, meaning the city will be seeing more tourists this year. Tourists will likely be in our own neighbourhoods, since Airbnb has more than 12,000 listings in Montreal.

But most of these listings are illegal.

Both the municipal and provincial governments have enacted laws to control Airbnb, as it poses the threat of gentrification, affecting rent prices for long term listings and disturbing tranquility in some neighbourhoods. But laws have done little --  95% of Airbnbs in Montreal are illegal.

Catherine Lussier of housing rights group Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU) the first loss Airbnb creates is access to affordable long term housing.

Lussier says different studies have shown Airbnbs increase rent in surrounding areas because Airbnb is a profitable way for landlords to make money. She says, as a result, there is a loss of affordable housing because these places have transformed into Airbnbs, and in some cases, evicted long term tenants to do so. With rising rent prices, some tenants cant even afford to live in their neighbourhood anymore.  

With the pandemic, the amount of Airbnbs have been reduced, but it still is very high, she says. Adding that some landlords have decided not to rent again with tourism coming back.

She says Airbnb has high consequences in Montreal, Quebec and other cities.

So just how profitable is running an Airbnb for landlords? 

Airbnb is tempting for property owners, as the average listing on the website charges a hundred and twenty seven dollars ($127) a night. And the average 1 bedroom apartment in Montreal is being rented for one thousand four hundred and fifty dollars ($1,450) – so if a listing at this rate is booked every night in a row through Airbnb for a month, a landlord will make that much in less than two weeks.

Lussier says any type of platform is more profitable for landlords in comparison to renting.