Winnipeg's bylaws lack teeth to curb short-term rentals, say downtown condo owners
Since last year, 56 short-term rental licences have been approved at Glasshouse condo building on Hargrave
A year after the City of Winnipeg introduced bylaws to regulate short-term housing rentals, residents in a downtown condo building say the rules have done little to stop their home from becoming a "ghost hotel."
"We thought it was going to be a community of people that would love to live downtown," said Anna Juangco-Maniquiz, who has lived in the Glasshouse Skylofts, a Hargrave Street condo building, since it opened in 2016.
Now she says she worries when the weekend rolls around.
"Do we have to call the cops again?" said Juangco-Maniquiz, who witnessed what police say was a human-trafficking incident in the building last year.
"It's just the anxiety of not really being able to predict what's going to happen on any given weekend because we don't know who's in the building."
More than one in four units at the Glasshouse had a short-term rental licence approved since new city bylaws came into effect last year — that's 56 licence approvals in the 194-unit building, a CBC News analysis of city data has found.
As of April 2024, any owners who rent out a home for a continuous period of less than 30 days are required to get a business licence from the city and renew it annually. In Winnipeg, websites like Airbnb or Vrbo host many of these listings.
According to the bylaw, any permanent Winnipeg resident can temporarily rent out their primary residence — and only their primary residence — if it was bought after Feb. 23, 2023.
However, some owners can rent out their primary residence and three non-primary residences if the properties were owned on or before that date.
Juangco-Maniquiz was "cautiously optimistic" about the bylaws, but says the city's decision to grandfather in some people who own multiple units has done little to help her building's situation.
"I feel like it's business as usual" for short-term rental operators, she told CBC News.
"I think that grandfathering rule really has not been a benefit to us.… I don't know if the bylaw has enough teeth for [the city] to go after any of the people that are not adhering to the rules."
Waverley West Coun. Janice Lukes, whose south-end ward has seen 85 short-term licences issued since last April, says "licensing has been a good thing" overall, but she disagrees with allowing owners to rent out multiple homes they don't live in.
"We are in a housing crisis, and I have always felt that we should be focusing on putting people in houses long-term, not using houses for short-term," she said.
CBC reached out to Daniel McIntyre Coun. Cindy Gilroy, whose downtown ward has seen 108 licence approvals since last April — the most of any city ward, with more than half of those approvals in Glasshouse alone. Gilroy did not reply before publication.
Increased security costs
Condo owner Mike Diehl, who has lived at Glasshouse since 2018, says the building is becoming a "ghost hotel," driving up costs for owners.
According to financial documents he shared with CBC News, the building's security and concierge fees have risen more than 130 per cent since 2020.
The cost peaked in 2023 at $206,576, after the building increased its security coverage from eight to 20 hours per day, due to partying, "criminal activity" and "police raids" in the building, Diehl says.
"It's not just the short-term rentals, those owners, that are paying those costs. It's everybody, we all share it," Diehl said.
Thorben Wieditz, executive director of Fairbnb Canada Network, which advocates for increased regulation of short-term housing, says his group has seen these rentals drive up shared costs at other condos across the country.
"People that live permanently in these buildings, and have invested all of their savings to have a permanent residence in these buildings, are all of a sudden faced with a situation where they live in a hotel," he said.
"They have to essentially carry the burden of maintaining a building that is being used as a hotel and as a commercial building."
Vacation Rentals & Neighbours Manitoba, a group that represents short-term rental hosts at Glasshouse, said in a statement posted online Wednesday that those operating in the building "are fully compliant with the City of Winnipeg's updated regulations."
The group says "short-term rentals are not the threat," suggesting the businesses operating in the building have brought thousands of dollars to Winnipeg's tourism industry.
The city's bylaw requires short-term rental operators with properties in condo buildings to get a letter of approval from the condo's board of directors.
But Glasshouse condo owner and board member Sinan Leylek says the board's lawyer advised that they "cannot decline any application," calling the process "extremely frustrating."
Board member Krystin Coyle, who manages multiple longer-term Airbnb listings in the building, told CBC the board gave a letter of approval to every owner who sought a short-term rental licence.
However, she says the condo corporation is consulting experts about its ability to deny certain owners.
"We're trying everything, but it's just there's so much stacked up against us," said Leylek, adding the board has received multiple letters from short-term rental owners' lawyers.
"It was great we finally have regulation, but we can't regulate it," he said. "It's approve everyone and then let the city deal with issues."
Doug Forbes, a Winnipeg-based lawyer who specializes in condominium and real estate law, says the condo building's own bylaws and declaration are likely limiting the board's ability to deny short-term rentals.
The documents — signed by Forbes in 2016 when he was the legal representative for Glasshouse developer Urban Capital — do not specifically mention short-term rentals or term limits for owners renting out their units. That could make it difficult for the board to limit short-term rentals in the building, Forbes told CBC.
Coun. Lukes says she's concerned about the concentration of short-term units in condo buildings like Glasshouse, but said "there's little opportunity that the city can change what the condominium board has approved."
However, Wieditz of Fairbnb says the city could step in by changing its bylaw to stop owners from renting out units they don't live in, because "city bylaws trump condo board rules."
Despite years of frustration over short-term rentals, Leylek says he's hopeful the condo's board can work with the city.
"Hopefully [city officials] would be able to have a meeting with us and see how they can help us with the current bylaws and if not, maybe make adjustments to them."
He says he'd like to see these businesses capped at 10 per cent of the building's units, compared to the current 29 per cent.
"Obviously the issue being addressed is helpful, but it's not where we want it to be. So I know there's still some work for us."
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With files from Cameron MacLean