Condos in Kelowna/City of Kelowna

By Vernon Matters Staff

call for change

Call for Kelowna-specific short term rental rules

Dec 1, 2025 | 4:41 PM

Kelowna-Mission MLA, Conservative Gavin Dew, is calling on the provincial government to stop stalling, as he put it, and immediately grant Kelowna the ability to implement its own short-term rental rules before the 2026 tourism season.

However, while rules do allow for some short-term rental flexibility, the government seems set on keeping a balance between tourism needs and the need to get people into longer term rental housing.

In a media release Monday, Dew said with only this week remaining in the fall legislative session, and the NDP cabinet meeting Wednesday, time is nearly gone for the province to do the right thing for Kelowna.

Kelowna’s vacancy rate has increased to five per cent since late last year.

“Kelowna has done everything they asked of us,” says Dew. “We built the housing. We hit the vacancy targets. We met and exceeded the thresholds the province set. Yet because of how the NDP wrote its own legislation, Kelowna is still forced to wait until November of next year to opt out and take control of its own short term rental rules. That means undermining yet another tourism season even though we qualify right now.”

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Dew says this delay is entirely political and entirely avoidable. His private member’s bill, which would move the opt out date from November 1 to May 1, has already passed first reading and is sitting on the order paper. The government could call it for debate this week. Alternatively, cabinet can make a decision at its meeting this Wednesday and use an order in council to let Kelowna opt out early.

Meanwhile, Christine Boyle, Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs, told Vernon Matters in an email the province is in a housing crisis and “…we need to make sure that more homes are being used to house people, and not for speculators.

“Our short-term rental rules have been effective in creating more of the long-term rental housing that we need across B.C. while balancing local tourism needs.” Boyle said.

“There are 23,000 short-term rentals (STRs) registered in B.C. that continue to operate legally and are supplementing the hotel industry’s capacity – especially in more tourism dependent communities.

“Short-term rental regulations allow people who don’t need to be in town for big events, or who want to rent out a spare bedroom, to rent out their homes to visitors through sites like Airbnb or VRBO. This means that people will still be able to list their homes during events like the Memorial Cup and BC Summer Games, as long as it’s their primary residence.”