Dan Fumano: Meet Vancouver's 'Airbnb specialist,' unabashed promoter of lucrative short-term rentals - Vancouver Sun

Sabtu, 21 Oktober 2023

Dan Fumano: Meet Vancouver's 'Airbnb specialist,' unabashed promoter of lucrative short-term rentals - Vancouver Sun

Column: As the B.C. government cracks down on short-term rentals, one longtime Vancouver realtor, self-described “Airbnb specialist” and start-up CEO champions their value.

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The window of the office storefront at 673 Abbott St. Photo by Jason Payne /PNG

In a YouTube video earlier this year, Vancouver realtor Thomas Park told the story of discovering, seven years ago, how lucrative renting his one-bedroom condo through Airbnb had become.

“I quickly realized short-term rentals generate about two to three times more revenue than long-term rentals,” he said, as a GIF showing a man flicking a stack of bills flashed on the screen.

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Park then goes on to say he “had to take action” to “protect my investment” when two members on his strata council wanted to restrict Airbnbs.

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We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

“Luckily, I’ve been a realtor for 19 years, and I’ve sold over 100 units in the complex. So, I called all my investor clients,” Park said directly into the camera, as another GIF popped up showing Bugs Bunny kicking back on a pool chair chatting on the phone.

After Park told his investor clients that restricting short-term rentals could “negatively impact the value of their home,” each owner gave him their proxy, he said, and the Airbnb restrictions were voted down.

Those two opposing council members were also replaced with “like-minded owners, and now we control the strata council,” he said.

Park is an interesting character who presents a different side to a hotly debated subject: At a time when the B.C. government is cracking down on platforms like Airbnb — and tenants’ advocates are raising alarms about their effect on the housing market — the longtime Vancouver realtor, self-described Airbnb specialist and startup CEO is an unabashed champion of the value of short-term rentals.

The video, titled “How I converted 2 stratas (HOA) w/ almost 900 units to allow #Airbnb,” was posted earlier this year on the YouTube channel of Reitium, a real estate crowdfunding company of which Park is co-founder and CEO.

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Reitium’s office is in the 600-block of Abbott Street in downtown Vancouver, on the same block as a large condo complex called España and across the street from another complex called Firenze.

The two condo complexes, between them, total almost 900 units.

A digital advertisement in a Vancouver condo building promoting the services of realtor Thomas Park. - Submitted photo — A digital ad in a Vancouver condo building promoting the services of realtor Thomas Park. jpg

A digital ad in a Firenze elevator, as seen in a photograph shared with Postmedia News, touts Park as an Airbnb specialist, and declares: “No one has SOLD more in the Firenze and España.”

The YouTube clip also shows a photo that appears to be one of the Firenze towers. When a Postmedia reporter visited Firenze and España this week, a steady stream of visitors rolling suitcases exited the buildings into waiting taxis. Many shared positive reviews of their Airbnb stays in the buildings.

When Postmedia asked Park if the two stratas mentioned in his video were Firenze and España, he replied: “Could be.”

Asked whether he was on either strata’s council, Park answered: “Could be.”

The España website lists Park as a member of the strata council. Park was also listed as a council member in a previous year’s Firenze’s meeting minutes.

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Nothing in Park’s video suggests any rules were broken, as he related a story from seven years ago, before Vancouver’s short-term rentals came into effect.

Airbnb appears to be a big part of his business. Reitium’s Abbott Street storefront is plastered with posters. One sign displays an Airbnb logo and advertises the “Luggage service available” through the office day and night.

Another poster in the window says: “Invest in a Airbnb starting with $100,” with a QR code that takes you to Reitium’s investing website.

Reitium is a startup that launched earlier this year, providing a crowdfunding platform for what they call “fractional” real estate investing. Although Reitium’s promotional videos advertise the lucrative side of investing in Airbnb’s as like “Monopoly IRL” (an abbreviation for “in real life”), Park explained that the company operates in compliance with all applicable laws and any potential future short-term rental investments would be in jurisdictions without regulations like B.C.’s.

The windows also include Park’s real estate listings, many in España or Firenze. Park’s online listings advertise units as “AirBnB opportunity!” or “Airbnb/Short-term rental friendly!”

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VANCOUVER, BC - October 17, 2023 - 688 Abbott St. (Firenze at International Village) in Vancouver, B.C., October 17, 2023. There is a letter of complaint circulating that there is now 150 units being rented out as airbnbs. (Arlen Redekop / Postmedia staff photo) (Story by Dan Fumano) [PNG Merlin Archive] — The Firenze condo tower at 688 Abbott St. in Vancouver on Oct.17. There is a letter of complaint circulating that 150 condos in the complex — about one-third of the total units — are listed for rent on Airbnbs. Photo by Arlen Redekop /PNG

There is nothing improper about advertising a condo as Airbnb-friendly. It’s legal to earn income by renting out homes on Airbnb or other short-term rental platforms, as long as they comply with a local municipality’s rule and, soon, the province’s rules, too.

Park said he expects that B.C.’s new regulations will not make a big difference for the City of Vancouver. That’s because one key piece of the provincial legislation is a rule that in municipalities with more than 10,000 residents, only principal residences can be used for short-term rentals. But Vancouver already has had its own municipal bylaw with a similar principal-residence requirement since 2018.

The City of Vancouver already does a rigorous job of short-term rental enforcement, Park said, so he doesn’t anticipate the new provincial legislation will make much difference here.

“I applauded when the City of Vancouver came in with their short-term rental laws, and they are very diligent in terms of auditing people,” Park said. He’s heard of “commercial operators” in some U.S. markets who rent out multiple properties through Airbnb, he said, but he hasn’t seen that in Vancouver.

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The rationale behind the principal-residence rule is to allow people to rent out their homes to visitors when they’re travelling or staying elsewhere for a period, but doesn’t take a unit of housing off the market that could otherwise be someone’s full-time home.

Vancouver, BC: October 18, 2023 -- Vancouvercondos.com at 673 Abbott Street in Vancouver, BC Wednesday, October 18, 2023. New rules that regulate Airbnb listed properties are being rolled out by the province to address concerns that they lower the housing stock. (Photo by Jason Payne/ PNG) (For story by Dan Fumano) [PNG Merlin Archive] — An office at 673 Abbott St. in Vancouver on Oct. 18. Photo by Jason Payne /PNG

That’s exactly how Park rents out his own home on Airbnb, he said. He travels a lot for work — he was reached by phone this week in Tampa Bay, between trips to Dallas, Las Vegas and Miami — so he rents out his home through Airbnb, which helps pay for his travel and a high-interest mortgage.

While Park doesn’t oppose regulation and enforcement of short-term rentals, he thinks governments’ show of cracking down serves to distract from the problem of not getting enough housing approved and built.

Different levels of government “are not building,” he said. “And they’re pulling the wool over our eyes, saying that it’s actually a short-term rental problem. Which it isn’t.

“It’s a scapegoat for the government. You can quote me on that.”

Park said he’s only aware of 15 or 16 condo buildings in downtown Vancouver that allow short-term rentals. That scarcity means condos in those buildings are more valuable, Park said, estimating that a two-bedroom condo in an Airbnb-friendly building can sell for about $200,000 more than a similar unit in a strata that bans short-term rentals.

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Therefore, condo owners who don’t like living in a building with short-term rentals have a “golden ticket,” he says: a rare opportunity to sell high and move into a comparable unit nearby bought for a lower price.

“It’s the biggest spread ever, this is like the Holy Grail.”

While some have called for an outright ban on short-term rentals in Vancouver, arguing it would increase the supply of badly needed long-term rental homes, Park said that a complete ban could mean lost tourism revenue, especially considering Vancouver’s documented shortage of hotel rooms.

Tony Gioventu, executive director of the Condominium Home Owners Association of B.C., disagrees with Park’s assessment of Vancouver’s short-term rental enforcement and the realtor’s prediction about whether the provincial legislation will change Vancouver’s short-term rental landscape.

Municipalities, including Vancouver, don’t “have the resources they need to enforce their bylaws,” Gioventu says. He predicts that the province will be better-positioned to ensure only principal residences are rented through short-term platforms.

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He expects the number of listings will, eventually, decrease, although it may not be immediate.

Gioventu said he’s familiar with Firenze and España as stratas with a particularly high volume of short-term accommodations. He has heard residents there feel they are “basically dealing with a hotel operation in their building, and that’s not why they moved in there.”

Reached this week, a member of Firenze’s strata council said the council has no evidence of hosts breaking the existing short-term rental rules but they have heard residents’ concerns about the large increase in visitors this past summer.

Council will soon present bylaws to regulate short-term rentals, the member said. The proposed bylaws, expected to be voted on in a special meeting in December, would need to be adopted by a three-quarters’ vote of the strata.

While some residents want Airbnb banned outright, that three-quarter bar might be hard to meet in a strata like Firenze where a third of owners have short-term rental licences they might see as quite valuable.

dfumano@postmedia.com

twitter.com/fumano

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