Tom Dyas hints at a review of Kelowna's short-term rentals in early 2025

In a year end interview with KelownaNow, mayor Tom Dyas said the city was progressing well on the housing front and will continue to advocate for more housing options in the city.

The mayor pointed to some of the accomplishment that were made in 2024, including the advancement of the $31 million Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), fast tracking infill housing by speeding up the development application process, implementing provincial housing legislation and advance the implementation of tiny homes.

Dyas also said the city had advanced 1,400 building permits in 2024 and 3,600 occupancy permits, something he attributed to the introduction of an AI chatbot in 2023.

As for the HAF, Dyas said that the city had delivered about 57% of their obligations and, as a result, had received about $16 million so far. He said the city had reached out to the federal Housing Minister to see if they could advance the rest of the funds.

“We looked at saying is there the opportunity to look at advancing those funds to us to complete the rest of the projects because we do have them in stream,” Dyas said. "We haven't received a response back yet."

The future of Kelowna’s HAF is a little shaky. Last month, Pierre Poilievre said the Conservatives would cut the program, which was followed by a letter from housing minister Sean Fraser asking the City of Kelowna for input on the program.

Dyas responded and warned of the consequences of cutting the program but on Dec. 16, Sean Fraser announced he would be leaving the cabinet.

“​​His office may send us one back, but I know I won't get one from him,” Dyas said.

“We're only looking at it from a positive standpoint that at some point in time we will continue to receive those funds because they've done what they've needed to do within our community and assist us in advancing housing.”

Although Dyas said the city was tracking well with rentals and market homes, KelownaNow asked if the city’s vacancy rate was on track to meet the BC NDP’s threshold of a 3% vacancy rate, which could allow for more short-term rentals (STRs) to return to the market.

Some local politicians and Tourism Kelowna have said tourism in the city suffered after new STR rules that were introduced earlier this year.

However, Dyas said the impact was a “very small” decrease and pointed to over 2 million people coming through Kelowna International Airport. He said the summer months were “on par or above.”

Dyas said the city needed some time to see how the STR rules impacted the city and tourism before doing a review.

“I think we needed a little bit of a year to kind of go through the summer months and to kind of get back to where our numbers are with respect to the visitors and the tourism and what was affected,” Dyas said.

“Then build the case based upon the information that we have and continue to communicate with higher levels of government that make those decisions that are imposed upon municipalities.”

Dyas said that the city was tracking the number of occupancy permits and whether or not vacancy rates were going up.

“Do they get to the 3% and do they hold at that 3% for the length of time that it needs to make changes with regards to short term rentals? The future will play out for sure,” he said.

“I do know that sometime early into the new year staff are coming back to us with a short term rental review on the existing properties.”

It is unknown exactly when that review of the STR rules will come through but Kelowna City Council resumes regular meetings in mid-January.