BC extends deadline for short-term rental platforms to remove non-registered listings

The province of BC has extended the deadline for short-term rental (STR) platforms to stop advertising illegal listings and the deadline to cancel future bookings for listings that aren’t on the provincial registry.

Thursday marks one year since BC’s short-term rental regulations went into effect.

It's also been a little over a year since the province announced new rules for host platforms, which included sharing data with the government and giving local governments the ability to request a platform remove listings that don’t display valid business licences.

Earlier this year, the province also announced that all STR hosts in BC must have their listings registered and have a provincial registration number by May 1.

However, STR platforms like Vrbo and AirBnB have requested more time to complete the technical work needed to validate registry numbers.

The Ministry of Housing has moved the deadline for platforms to stop advertising STRs without a valid registration number from May 1 to June 2.

The ministry also moved the deadline for platforms to cancel all future bookings for illegal STRs from June 1 to June 23.

“During this period, the Province will continue working with platforms to ensure any technical challenges or concerns are addressed,” the news release said.

STR hosts are still expected to have their listing registered by May 1.

“To date, more than 20,000 listings have been registered,” the province said in a news release.

“When the STR legislation was introduced in 2023, there were an estimated 28,000 individual STR listings in BC, indicating more of these units are being converted to long-term homes that people need.”

The province also claims that asking rates for long-term rentals have decreased by 6.1% throughout BC.