Penticton residents and property owners have less than a week left to give their feedback on the future of short-term rentals in the community.

The survey is being hosted through the shapeyourcitypenticton.ca website until Jan. 27. Paper copies of the survey are also available at the Penticton Public Library, the Community Centre and City Hall.

Once the survey closes, the feedback will be reviewed before being presented to city council to discuss future policies around short-term rentals. Those policies will also go before the public before being implemented.

“Short-term rentals provide benefits such as more accommodation options for tourists and mortgage helpers for the operators but more recently, questions have arisen about their impact on housing supply and traditional visitor accommodations such as hotels and motels. Given these questions, council asked staff to study the benefits and impacts of the current program in Penticton,” said Blake Laven, director of development services.

Today, there are 18,500 homes in the city and of these, about 360 to 500 are licensed short-term rentals. Nearly half of these short-term rentals are single-family homes which are primarily (57%) occupied by the operator.

In March 2022, Summerland council adopted a set of five bylaws governing short-term rental units in the community including requiring at least one primary residential unit on the lot where someone lives most of the year as their principal home.

READ MORE: Have your say on short-term rentals in Penticton

In Penticton, the feedback from the public will also be added to information gathered from local stakeholders such as local hotels, Okanagan College and Travel Penticton.

The Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen is also conducting a survey to address concerns on short-term rentals. The survey will run from Jan. 11 to Feb. 15. You can find the survey here.

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