REPORT | SEPTEMBER, 2016

Airbnb and the

Vancouver
Housing Market

Peter Coles, Head Economist, Airbnb

Vanessa Lauf, Policy Researcher, Airbnb

We thank Tom Davidoff, Associate Professor of the University of British Columbia for providing a framework for
exploring the impact of Airbnb on affordability within housing markets and for helpful comments on an earlier draft of
this impact analysis. All data and tabulations for the specific case of Vancouver were done in-house. Given his
familiarity with our approach and this study, it may

be helpful to discuss this with Tom at tom.davidoff@gmail.com

1. Introduction
This memorandum presents data on how Airbnb hosts in Vancouver share their homes, how
often they are doing it, and the impact this may have on housing in Vancouver.

2. Key Findings

Airbnb booked entire home listings represent a small fraction (2.98%) of

Vancouvers housing units. Frequently booked entire home listings represent 0.49% of
Vancouvers housing units.1 Frequently booked entire home listings that outcompete the
long-term market represent 0.11% of Vancouver housing units.

FIGURE 1 - Airbnb Booked Listings Compared to Vancouver Housing Stock

Most entire home listings are shared only occasionally: 4

7% of entire home
listings in Vancouver last year (August 1, 2015 through August 1, 2016) were rented
fewer than 30 days, and nearly 90% were rented fewer than 180 days. Hosting patterns
suggest that most hosts are small-scale, casual operators, renting space that would
likely not be available on the long-term rental market.

Most entire home listings in Vancouver earn modest income from sharing their
homes, typically about $6,630CAD annually. Only 320 listings home share frequently

Frequently booked listings are defined as listings that hosted at least 180 short-term nights during the year ending August 1, 2016.
If an entire home listing has not been available on Airbnb.com for a complete year, it is considered full-time if it short-term hosted
over 50% of the days since the listing was activated. Short-term rentals are defined as stays of fewer than 30 consecutive days.
Long-term stays of a month or more are excluded.

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enough to financially outcompete a long term tenant, equivalent to 0.11% of Vancouver

housing units.

2.a - Airbnb entire home listings are a tiny fraction of Vancouver

housing.
When determining any impact that Airbnb may have on housing in Vancouver, its important to
remember the scale of Airbnb. In the past year (August 1, 2015 through August 1, 2016), 8,550
entire home listings in Vancouver hosted at least one trip - which represents 3% of Vancouvers
286,742 housing units. Twelve thousand three hundred and ten (12,310) entire home listings in
Vancouver have ever hosted a trip - which still represents only about 4% of Vancouver housing
units. Both of these proportions are overestimates, since the most recent census count of
housing units is from 2011, and during the past five years Vancouver has built significant
additional housing.2 These proportions also overstate the scale of Airbnb because they do not
consider the frequency of Airbnb activity, the subject of the following section.
TABLE 1 - Airbnb Entire Home Listings in Vancouver as Percent of Vancouver Housing Stock

Number of
entire home
listings

Number of entire home

listings as percent of
Vancouver housing units

286,742

100%

Have hosted a trip in the past year

(August 1, 2015 through August 1,
2016)

8,550

3%

Have ever hosted a trip

12,310

4%

Are active listings, as of August 1, 2016

(i.e., displayed on Airbnb.com)4

4,610

1.6%

Total housing units in Vancouver (2011)3

Airbnb entire home listings in Vancouver
that...

BC Stats reports that, based on the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the Vancouver metro area has seen over
95,000 housing starts since 2011. Accessed September 14, 2016 at
http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/StatisticsBySubject/Economy/BuildingPermitsHousingStartsandSales.aspx.
2

Source: Census Profile - Age, Sex, Marital Status, Families, Households, Dwellings and Language for Canada, Provinces,
Territories and Health Regions (December 2013), 2011 Census. Accessed at
http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/dp-pd/prof/details/page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=CSD&Code1=5915022&Geo2=
PR&Code2=01&Data=Count&SearchText=Vancouver&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=All&Custom=&TABID=1
4
Active listings are listings that are displayed on Airbnb.com, regardless of whether the listing hosts a trip, has availability, or is
subsequently removed from the website.
3

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2.b - Most entire home listings are only shared occasionally.

TABLE 2 shows how frequently entire home listings in Vancouver hosted guests during the past
year (August 1, 2015 through August 1, 2016). To ensure that annual hosting frequency is not
deflated by newly-activated listings, TABLE 2 shows the annual hosting patterns for all listings
that were first active on, or before, August 1, 2015 and therefore have a years worth of hosting
behaviour.5 Almost half of the entire home listings that hosted guests in Vancouver last year
hosted for fewer than 30 nights during the entire year; almost 90% hosted for less than half the
year. About 4% of entire home listings hosted more than 270 nights last year.
TABLE 2 - 2015 Short-Term Hosting Frequency for Entire Home Listings on Airbnb in Vancouver6

Number of nights
hosted [Annually]

Percent of entire home Airbnb

listings in Vancouver
[non-cumulative]

Percent of entire home Airbnb

listings in Vancouver
[cumulative]

1 - 30

47%

47%

31 - 60

18%

65%

61 - 90

10%

75%

91 - 120

6%

81%

121 - 180

8%

88%

181 - 270

8%

96%

More than 270

4%

While we cannot know for certain why hosts are hosting only occasionally, we can hypothesize
that, in most cases, the entire home listing is a primary home being rented while the resident is
traveling for work or vacation, or otherwise away from their home. These hosting patterns
suggests that the vast majority of hosts are small-time operators, renting space that, even
without Airbnb, would likely not be available on the long-term rental market. Additionally, its
worth noting that many accessory units, like a small bedroom over a garage, or portion of a
dwelling with a separate entrance, are listed on Airbnb as an entire home.7 This type of space
often lacks a kitchen or other facilities, and, with or without Airbnb, would not be available to a
long-term tenant as a dwelling unit.

To best represent annual hosting patterns, listings without at least a years worth of hosting behaviour are excluded from the
analysis. Excluding newly-activated listings avoids artificially inflating the lower end of the histogram for number of nights hosted,
which would make our listings look even more occasional than they already are.
5

Based on Airbnb bookings data for Vancouver in the year period August 1, 2015 through August 1, 2016. Analysis includes all
short-term rentals (rentals for fewer than 30 consecutive days). Long-term rentals (rentals for more than 30 consecutive days) are
excluded.
6

Classification of listings as either entire home/apt, private room, or shared room is self-reported by hosts.

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2.c - Most Vancouver hosts make modest but significant income from
sharing their homes. However, they dont homeshare frequently
enough to financially outcompete a long term tenant.
When comparing the average long-term rental income with Airbnb earnings, we see that most
hosts make less money hosting on Airbnb than they could renting to a tenant month-to-month.
The typical entire home listing in Vancouver earned $6,600CAD in the past year8 , which
amounts to about $553CAD per month. By comparison, the average long-term monthly rent in
Vancouver is $2,083CAD. That is, renting to a long-term tenant tends to be more lucrative,
typically, than hosting guests on Airbnb. Only 320 entire home listings in Vancouver that hosted
in the past year earned enough to out-compete the long-term market, equivalent to 0.11% of
Vancouver housing units. For a scale comparison, a recent report commissioned by the
Vancouver Affordable Housing Agency finds that 4.8% of Vancouver housing units - over
10,000 - are 'non-occupied'.9 Compared to the 320 Airbnb listings earning above the long-term
rental break-even threshold, non-occupied units are 30 times more prevalent.
Again, we cannot know for certain why hosts do not rent on Airbnb enough to earn more than
long-term renting, but we can hypothesize that, in most cases, the entire home listing is a
primary home being rented while the resident is traveling for work or vacation, or otherwise
away from their home.
TABLE 3 - Comparison of typical Airbnb income per listing versus average long-term rental income per
housing unit

Typical annual
Average annual rent Airbnb income for
in Vancouver10
entire home listing
in Vancouver
Entire
City, All
Bedrooms

$2,083CAD x 12
months =
$24,996CAD

$6,630CAD

Number of Airbnb
Units as % of
listings rented
all housing
above break-even
units
threshold
320

0.11%

The annual earnings per typical listing are calculated as the median earnings across all entire home listings that hosted at least
one trip in the past year (August 1, 2015 through August 1, 2016). To avoid deflating the median by newly-created listings, only
listings that were active at the beginning of the study period (August 1, 2015) are included, to best represent the typical annual
earnings. (Without controlling for newly-created listings, the median annual earnings per entire home listing is $4,910CAD). The
median is taken instead of the average because the distribution of host earnings is not normally distributed, but heavily right-tailed.
With a right-tailed distribution, the median is a better measure of central tendency than the mean (average). The average is skewed
upwards by the right tail (to about $12,250CAD).

Ecotagious Inc.'s report "Stability in Vancouvers Housing Unit Occupancy: Analysis of Housing Occupancy in the City of
Vancouver Using Electricity Meter Data Analytics", prepared for the Vancouver Affordable Housing Agency (February 2016).
Accessed September 15, 2016 at http://council.vancouver.ca/20160308/documents/rr1EcotagiousReport.pdf.
10
Long-term rental rates in Vancouver are taken from Rent Jungle. Accessed August 18, 2016.
https://www.rentjungle.com/average-rent-in-vancouver-bc-rent-trends/
9

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Albeit simplified, this analysis illustrates that, given the way Vancouver residents participate in
Airbnb activity, hosting is not typically more lucrative than renting on the long-term market. Most
Airbnb hosts are not renting their entire unit listings at a rate that incentivizes taking the listing
off the market. A more detailed analysis might consider neighborhood variation in rental rates
and Airbnb activity, variation in rental offerings (studio suites versus one-bedroom units versus
two-bedroom units), and adjustments for the operating costs of short-term hosting versus
long-term landlording; but the findings are likely to show the same bottom line: Vancouver
residents use Airbnb occasionally, earn modest amounts of money, and are not full-time
vacation rental operators out-competing the long-term rental market.

2.d - Entire home listings on Airbnb are not a driver of housing prices.
Vancouver undoubtedly has a housing issue, with census-reported (rental) vacancy rates well
under 1%.11 In Vancouver, as elsewhere, rising demand for housing with unmatched growth in
supply has driven housing prices up and reduced vacancies. Housing prices, in part, indicate
the desirability of the city: desirable cities see increases in housing prices. Zoning policies,
employment patterns, public investment, economic health, and a number of other underlying
factors also contribute to changes in housing prices.
These drivers of housing prices are not particularly responsive to a small-scale, immediate-term
resident behavior like the occasional short-term rental of a handful of units in Vancouver. Just
over 8,500 listings - about 3% of the Vancouver housing stock - participating in occasional home
sharing is not a material driver of housing prices.

3. Conclusion
Home sharing in Vancouver appears to be a relatively small phenomenon, of just over 8,500
housing units, half of which hosted fewer than 30 nights. Vancouver hosts tend to rent only
occasionally, earning modest but meaningful supplemental income. Hosting and earning
patterns appear to support the hypothesis that Airbnb hosts in Vancouver are not materially
impacting the housing market, but rather reflect a small subset of residents who rent their
primary homes occasionally.

11

Rental vacancy rates are taken from the CMHC Rental Market Survey. Accessed August 18, 2016 at
https://www03.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/hmiportal/en/#TableMapChart/5915022/4/Vancouver%20(CY)

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4. Appendix
4.a - Additional Notes on Methodology
Host earnings includes the listing price plus fees charged for additional guests and excludes
service fees, taxes, and cleaning fees. The framework is meant to reflect the hosts net revenue,
which is most comparable to rent collected by landlords.
This analysis focuses on housing units as the unit of potential displacement. Public data, like
census counts, are provided at the housing unit level, and measures of housing provision, like
vacancy rates, are calculated based on housing units, rather than bedrooms. Lease agreements
and home sales, too, primarily occur at the unit level, rather than the bedroom level. Also, more
generally, city governments tend to voice concerns about housing units in their cities, rather
than (spare) bedrooms, and our analysis responds to this concern. The Airbnb data presented
includes only entire home listings, which are the best Airbnb proxy for housing units, even
though not all entire home listings are necessarily housing units that could (legally)
accommodate a long-term tenant. Entire home listings represent 71% of listings (based on
active listings as of August 1, 2016), with the other 29% consisting of private and shared rooms.
Airbnb bookings data used in the analysis includes short-term rentals (rentals for fewer than 30
consecutive days) and excludes long-term stays (rentals for 30 consecutive days or longer).

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