Editorial: Short-term rental balance needed

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New Brunswick Housing Minister Jill Green is assembling a working group to research and study the short-term housing rental market in the province and aims to have it begin in mid-March to identify any problems there may be and suggest solutions for any problems verified.

She said the group would work with ‘partners’ across all levels of government, which we consider essential, as city mayors across the province told Green in a Feb. 7 meeting that short-term rentals are adversely affecting housing availability and affordability in their communities.

That merits study, but we caution it’s too early to jump to hasty conclusions. Such rentals (popularized by Air B&Bs) have been controversial in many places, but there’s a wide variety of players and while some regulation may be needed, we’re not aware of any evidence that shows the present housing shortage has a significant connection to short-term rentals. It’d only be true if owners of short-term rentals would otherwise make their units available for long-term rentals. And rules, as British Columbia enacted, where an owner is only allowed one unit for short-term rentals, seem excessive.

Such rentals can also be a boost to tourism, and that matters too. Thus the working group to study, then make balanced, even-handed, fact-based recommendations to government is the right way to go.

And to her credit, Moncton Mayor Dawn Arnold appears to recognize that although she will be demonstrating why she considers some regulation is needed, she doesn’t seek a ban, just a better balance for all.

Nor should all short-term rental operators be lumped in with the industry’s less than sterling characters who’ve given all bad names at times. Other than that, any requirements – insurance, building codes, fire codes and hospitality taxes, for example – must be uniformly and fairly applied.

It ought to be achievable.