We finally won.

Yesterday, the Ontario Divisional Court issued a bottom-line decision which removed the last hurdle towards implementing and enforcing Toronto’s short-term rental regulations.

Over the last several years, AirBNB has been eating up empty rental apartments in Toronto, preventing them from being rented and driving up prices.

The City of Toronto enacted regulations to stop rental units from being used as ghost hotels however a number of appeals were launched.

Yesterday, the appeal to Ontario's Divisional Court was dismissed, meaning City of Toronto rules are now in effect and those units are coming back onto the market.

"This ruling effectively puts an end to the hostage situation that a number of short-term rental hosts have put Toronto in," says Thorben Wieditz of FairBNB Canada in a press release.  The FMTA has been a long time member of the FairBNB coalition.

"We can now finally move towards implementation and enforcement of the City's Short-term rental rules, which should remove close to 10,000 AirBNB listings and hopefully return the majority of these to Toronto's housing stock."

Due to COVID-19, the effects are already being felt.  With no guests, AirBNB hosts have already been renting out their units on the rental market long terms.  Rents in Toronto have declined for the first time in decades.

Than you to all the tenants and members who supported us in this fight!  

FMTA