As the Province gears up to enact its restrictions against short-term rentals on May 1st—housing units which are rented out on platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo—the government decided to share some last minute clarifications.
The new clarity is in regards to strata hotels and motels—units of a building which are each privately owned, but rented out through an administrator who also handles daily cleaning.
People may acquire these types of properties for a variety of reasons, including return on investment, capital appreciation and personal usage benefits.
Typically, these types of hotels or motels operate and look exactly the same as any hotel or motel, however the units are privately owned and those owners stand to benefit from them.
The Province says that because this legislation is meant to ensure that more long-term housing options come to the market, not remove units from the overnight hospitality industry.
These types of units have been exempt from the beginning, but some were unsure of if their units qualified so the BC government opted to create newer, clearer regulations that will clarify what makes a unit a ‘strata hotel/motel’ unit.
Subject to government approvals, in April the Province will exempt an existing strata hotel or motel from the principal residence requirement if one of the two following options applies to the unit:
- That before December 8th, 2023, the accommodation was similar to a hotel or motel and and continues to have a staffed front desk on site, cleaning staff or contractors or a platform for owners to access accommodation information about their unit, which are provided in a manner similar to a hotel or motel.
- That before December 8th, 2023, the accommodation was similar to a hotel or motel and more than one strata lot on the property is not able to be used as a principal residence by anyone due to a restriction under zoning, a rental management agreement or a restrictive covenant under the Land Title Act.
The Province says that all units on the property are to be treated the same so treatment is consistent.
For newly built strata hotels and motels to be exempt from the principal-residence requirement they must have all three services listed above in option one, in addition to one of the legal-use restrictions described in option two.
