City Watch: Vancouver
Vancouver requires short-term rentals to be the host’s principal residence, carry a business license, and register the license on every platform listing. The city recently doubled fines, revoked hundreds of licenses, and is lobbying for provincial data-sharing powers.
- Principal residence + business license mandatory.
- $500–$3,000 fines per day, per listing.
- BC is drafting province-wide enforcement rules.
As British Columbia tightens housing rules, Vancouver is the flagship enforcement city. ASTRO helps operators document residency, stay compliant, and organize for smarter legislation instead of blanket bans.
Pressures to watch
- License audits: City staff cross-reference Hydro bills, tax returns, and driver’s licenses to catch investment properties.
- Platform purges: Airbnb and Expedia now block unlicensed listings automatically.
- Provincial registry: BC’s 2024 legislation introduces a single STR registry and empowers the province to yank listings.
- Neighborhood reporting: 311 complaints lead to immediate inspections and potential padlocks.
ASTRO’s Canada desk pairs you with compliance pros, accountants, and legal counsel who have already defended licenses. We maintain a shared log of enforcement patterns so members know which neighborhoods are under the microscope.
We’re also working with Downtown Vancouver BIA and tourism boards to prove the value of vetted owner inventory: union labor, safe housing standards, and contributions to local event capacity when hotels sell out.
- What do members get? Toolkits, governance tracking, and a trusted exchange.
- How fast can we launch? Paste Markdown, run the pave script, verify.