Airbnb Empires Postponed

Compared to 2019, tourism is nowhere near recovered. Canada has lost two seasons of tourism.

While there were promising signs toward the end of the summer, it seems likely that Omicron has scuppered any big plans for Canadian's hoping to Airbnb their home for extra cash or build an empire of short-term rentals.

Why is this significant? Short-term rentals are a sub-category of what Mortgage Sandbox calls "Non-core Demand” for housing. Compared to pre-pandemic, non-core demand is much lower today because of the collapse in tourism.

While it was starting to recover, with the Omicron variant, the recovery will be delayed a little longer.

Nevertheless, interest in building Airbnb empires should be weak for the foreseeable future, and short-term rentals will remain a neutral influence on home values.