Kelowna opts out of short-term rental limits after vacancy soars to more than 6% | CBC News
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The City of Kelowna is opening up more homes to tourists this summer after successfully lobbying the province for an early exemption to short-term rental rules.
B.C. Housing Minister Christine Boyle said Kelowna has been showing “incredible leadership” in building new properties to boost vacancy rates in the city, making it the only jurisdiction in B.C. to qualify for the exemption at this point.
“They have been speeding up approvals, building more housing,” Boyle told CBC Daybreak South host Chris Walker. “It’s made a big difference both in the vacancy rate and in seeing rents decrease.”
B.C.’s crackdown on short-term rentals, targeting platforms like Airbnb and VRBO, came into effect on May 1, 2024, and covers most communities of more than 10,000 people.
The rules, which the province says are designed to ease housing crunches, restrict short-term property rentals to either principal residences or a secondary suite or structure on a property — preventing people from renting out full homes or apartments that they don’t live in full time.
However, exemptions can be granted for any city that manages to show a vacancy rate of three per cent or more for two years in a row based on Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) data.
Recent data shows Kelowna has significantly increased its vacancy, from 3.8 per cent in 2024 to 6.4 per cent in 2025, the highest of any metropolitan area in the country.
Mayor Tom Dyas said after city council saw the data in December, it began speaking to the province about opting out of the short-term rental rules early, rather than waiting for the existing November date, in order to capitalize on the summer season.
He said part of their pitch was focusing on areas already zoned for short-term rentals, mostly around the downtown core and along the waterfront.
“We want to make sure that we just walk slowly,” he said, emphasizing he wants to offer a place for tourists to stay while still working on affordability.
While Boyle and Dyas both spoke about the impact of accelerated building approval on the increased vacancy, CMHC analysis has also indicated vacancy rates have increased as more people leave the city due to affordability concerns, as well as a downturn in the number of foreign students and workers in the area due to new limits in place enacted by the federal government.