The 4.5% allowable rent increase for 2019 announced by the BC government will hit Vancouver renters hard. I pledge to offer Vancouver’s renters a rental rebate financed by Airbnb fines. Such a move would help rental households without burdening either the Vancouver taxpayers or our city’s landlords.

The latest Airbnb scan I conducted last night detected 3,480 violations of the short term rental bylaws. By fining these violations at $1,000 per day for just 30 days, we can collect $104M. That’s $104 million in the rental affordability fund.

Total Airbnb Listings 4066 Duplicate Licences 1065 Dubious Exemptions 195 Obviously Fake 60 Inocrrect License Type 165 Hosts with multiple units 1995 Total violations 3480 Fines collected ($1,000 * 30 days) $104,400,000 Total rental households in Vancouver 136,135 Rebate per household $767 Median 2 BR rent in Vancouver $2,700 Annual increase $ amount at 4.5% $1,458 After rebate $691 Effective increase after rebate 2.13%

There are 136,135 rental households in Vancouver . If we spread the $104 million equally, each current rental household will receive $767 a rental rebate. With the rebate, the effective increase for median Vancouver renter of a two bedroom will go down to just 2.13%.

While a rent freeze sounds great on paper, such a move would act as a disincentive to potential landlords, and could cause a further reduction in our already dangerously low vacancy rate. The rental affordability fund, on the other hand, helps renters without hurting landlords.

Airbnb and other short term rental platforms have been responsible for falling vacancy rates and rising rents. It’s only fitting that we target Airbnb violators to fund rental affordability.