As demand returns, can short-term rentals co-exist with housing affordability?

short-term rentals are renewing scrutiny on the role platforms such as Airbnb play in making housing less affordable for some Canadians.Experts who spoke to Global News say there’s a clear correlation between the prominence of short-term rentals in a city and the affordability of rents and home prices, while a spokesperson for Airbnb says there’s no proof that the platform is making housing more expensive for local residents.Pushes to regulate the short-term rental market like new legislation passed this week in Quebec, however, are showing promise to experts who monitor the impact of Airbnb and others on improving housing affordability in Canada.Quebec’s new regulations and the conversation about housing affordability in Canada come as Airbnb itself is projecting a “much larger return to summer travel.”Nathan Rotman, Airbnb’s regional lead in Canada and the northeastern United States, says much of the travel demand in Canada observed by the platform comes from budget-conscious Canadians who are travelling domestically but nonetheless want to get out of the house this summer after years of pandemic disruptions.“We’re definitely seeing people return to urban centres in a way that they hadn’t at the height of the pandemic, when they were looking to reconnect with family and friends and book something much more rural and remote,” he tells Global News.Bram Gallagher is an economist with AirDNA, a third-party site that scrapes data from Airbnb and Expedia-owned competitor VRBO to track the short-term rental market for investors and the platform’s hosts.Gallagher confirms Rotman’s read on the short-term rental market: “demand is up,” he tells Global News.April, for example, saw 1.4 million short-term rental stays in Canada, up.