Converting entire-home Airbnbs into long-term housing would nudge the city’s vacancy rate towards a “healthy” three per cent, says a new report from Fairbnb.

The coalition of hotel workers, residents and housing advocates released the findings Thursday at city hall.

The report estimates more than 7,300 entire-home listings on the short-term rental platform that do not appear to comply with Toronto’s new bylaws could become available, nearly 2,500 in Toronto’s waterfront area alone.

If even half of those homes were returned to the long-term rental market the city’s minuscule vacancy rate would increase to two per cent, and it could approach a “healthy” rate of three per cent if all entire-home listings became long-term rentals, the report said. That would be up from 1.3 per cent, the combined vacancy rate for condos and purpose-built rentals in Toronto in 2019, according to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp.

Airbnb disputed those findings, and stressed that the city’s new licensing and registration system has yet to be implemented.

Fairbnb spokesperson Thorben Wieditz urged Airbnb “to be good corporate citizens” and remove listings that don’t comply with the city’s new bylaw.

“The rental situation is getting worse and worse in Toronto and the last thing that Toronto needs is a corporation like Airbnb that systemically turns housing into hotel rooms,” Wieditz said. “We don’t have the luxury of waiting and waiting and waiting.”

The Fairbnb report used Toronto data from independent New York-based researcher Murray Cox of the website Inside Airbnb, which analyzes the platform’s listings. The Fairbnb report looked at only entire-home listings rented out more than 180 days a year; entire-home listings rented out by hosts with two or more entire homes for rent; and listings by hosts who rent out more than three private rooms. These type of listings are not allowed under the city’s new regulations, which are still being contested by landlords.

Under the new rules people can only host short-term rentals in their principal residence, and though the law is in effect the registration process won’t begin until the spring.

According to the data, the total number of Airbnb listings that don’t appear to follow the regulations increased by roughly 17.8 per cent, from about 8,241 in January 2019 to 9,708 one year later.

The number of entire-home listings, often referred to as ghost hotels, which are rented to tourists, business travellers and partygoers, increased by 13.5 per cent, from about 6,479 in January 2019 to 7,354 in January 2020.

These listings continue to be concentrated in the condo towers of the waterfront. About 34 per cent of all apparent non-compliant entire-home listings in Toronto were found there in January 2020, compared to about 30.5 per cent in December 2018.

Airbnb spokesperson Alexandra Dagg said in an emailed statement that Fairbnb’s report “conveniently ignores” the fact the city has not yet implemented its licensing and registration system.

“We continue to support the city’s efforts to reach the spring 2020 deadline they have outlined for implementation,” she added.

“Moreover, Fairbnb is yet again manipulating inaccurate data to protect the bottom line of their hotel industry benefactors.”

Under the city’s new regulations, short-term rentals are restricted to principal residences. City council approved the short-term rental bylaw in December 2017, but it was on hold as short-term landlords challenged it at the province’s Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT).

The tribunal ruled in the city’s favour late last fall, paving the way for the restrictions to take effect.

In its Nov. 18 written decision, the LPAT said the new rules have the potential to put up to 5,000 of Toronto’s more than 21,000 short-term rental units back into the long-term residential market.

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“There is one simple solution right in front of us that could increase the accessibility of affordable housing and reduce skyrocketing rents,” said Bahar Shadpour of the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario at the press conference Thursday.

But, she said, Airbnb has yet to remove those entire-home listings.

In the midst of Toronto’s “brutal housing crisis” people are fleeing the city and it’s only going to get worse if things don’t change, added Geordie Dent of the Federation of Metro Tenants’ Associations.

“No one can find a place to live, there’s a lot of panic and a lot of stress.”

Airbnb and other short-term rental sites did not create this problem, but they are “exacerbating it,” he said.

Landlords for short-term rentals plan to appeal the tribunal ruling to a divisional court, but the city is going ahead in the meantime.

The city’s framework for licensing platforms and hosts should be in place by this spring, said Ward 10 Coun. Joe Cressy. But Airbnb could step up now to delist listings that don’t meet the city’s requirements.

“We don’t want this to be a cat-and-mouse game,” he said.

In an ongoing attempt to crack down on so-called “party homes,” Airbnb announced earlier this month it would stop renting entire homes to new users under 25 in their own communities.

The latest move followed a shooting at a 32nd-storey downtown Toronto condo that killed three men and injured two others.

Airbnb also announced a neighbourhood hotline for concerns and a donation of $300,000 over three years to Canadian Doctors for Protection from Guns, a group that raises awareness of the public health impacts of gun violence.