City staff proposals to create a licensing and registration system for Airbnb-style rentals in Toronto strike a balance that addresses many issues arising from the growing phenomenon, Mayor John Tory says.

The proposed regulations, released Monday, would prohibit short-term rentals not in a person’s main residence.

Residents would be allowed to rent out part or all of their home if they are registered with the city, pay a fee and provide emergency and safety information to guests.

Under the proposed regulations, people could rent up to three rooms within a unit or the entire dwelling, as long as it is their principal residence. Short-term rentals would also be permitted in legal secondary suites.

The proposed rules would not prevent condo boards from banning short-term rentals altogether.

The proposed regulations will be discussed at Tory’s executive committee meeting next week. Staff are expected to report back to council with final recommendations later this year.

The measures leave the short-term, web-based rental market to continue, while limiting how it operates, in an effort to minimize disruption to residents living next to dwellings where there’s a “constant shuffling of people in an out,” Tory said Monday.

A short-term rental is defined as any stay lasting up to 28 days in a row, the staff report says.

The draft regulations also crack down on absentee landlords and push badly needed long-term rental units back onto the market, Tory told a news conference.

While the population grew 9.6 per cent from 1996 to 2011, there has been little increase in the supply of rental housing.

The mayor also defended a proposal to charge Airbnb hosts an accommodation tax of up to 10 per cent, while hotels would be subject to a tax of 4 per cent. Tory noted hotels are already paying commercial property taxes substantially higher than residential taxes.

Staff found 16 websites offering short-term rentals in Toronto, but Airbnb is the largest player, at 15,869 listings related to 10,800 properties in Toronto in 2016.

Under the proposed regulations, 3,200 of those properties would not be permitted as they are not a principal residence.

Alex Dagg, Airbnb’s public policy manager, released a statement said the company welcomes Toronto’s move “toward regulation (of) home-sharing.”

“We are reviewing the city’s report in detail and look forward to providing our response and feedback to executive committee,” her statement said.

Thorben Wieditz, a spokesman with Fairbnb, a pro-regulation coalition formed by the hotel workers union, called the proposals “promising,” but cautioned he had not yet scrutinized them closely.

He suggested they have the potential to be “the cutting-edge of home-sharing regulations in North America.”

He also predicted the primary residence requirement should lead to a “drastic reduction in so-called multi-listing hosts and commercial landlords.”

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One downtown Toronto resident said the regulations are long overdue.

“About time! I live in Maple Leaf Square. It has now become a three-star hotel for one-star guests. Madness. It’s our home,” Christopher Brown wrote in an email to the Star.

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The staff recommendations are in response to rapid growth in the number of websites, including Airbnb, that allow people to rent accommodations on a nightly basis, often at rates lower than hotels.

Budget travellers have embraced the burgeoning short-term rental market in Toronto and in cities around the world. But the phenomenon has also raised concerns about the potential impact on condominium living, neighbourhoods, housing affordability, tourism and taxation.

Various cities have adopted different regulations, some more restrictive than others.

Under Toronto’s measures, online rental platforms, including Airbnb, would only be allowed to list properties that have a city-issued registration number, which must appear in any online listing.

The short-term rental companies would also be required to remove problem listings and pay a licensing fee.

The proposals were based on months of research and consultations with the public and stakeholders. City staff would continue to consult with the public on the recommendations.