Short-Term Rentals Have ‘Significantly Impacted’ Housing Affordability: Desjardins

A new Desjardins report suggests short–term rentals likely contributed to the housing affordability crisis in Canada and around the world. The report released Monday shows the proliferation of short–term rentals on platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo has had a significant effect on the affordability and availability of homes by reducing the number of units available for long-term rentals and resale markets. Randall Bartlett, senior director of Canadian economics at Desjardins, said short–term rentals are often more appealing to real estate investors because they make more money from them than long-term leases. “From the perspective of the landlord, at a time of high and rising inflation, short–term rentals may offer them an opportunity to offset some of the rising costs because they can increase the rent more quickly than they could in the long-term rental market,” Bartlett said in an interview....