Faced with a critical shortage of year-round rental units, Belfast officials are weighing a series of sweeping changes to boost the number of apartments in the city, but one of those concepts, still in its early stages, has raised concerns among some of the city’s Airbnb hosts.
Airbnb is a web-based service that allows people to rent a place to stay directly from “hosts” who own the property. Other websites, such as HomeAway, offer similar vacation rental services.
Belfast is home to more than 60 Airbnbs, ranging from oceanside cottages and stately former sea captain homes to spare bedrooms and renovated basements at the host’s house. One listing features a secluded one-room yurt with an outhouse.
The nightly rental rate for these rooms often fall well below those of area hotels, especially during the busy summer tourist season. The bulk of Airbnbs in Belfast fall between $50 and $140 per night, according to listings.
While short-term rentals make up a small percentage of Belfast’s housing market, the number has been growing in recent years as short-term arrangements grow in popularity among visitors and temporary workers. City officials say Airbnb’s popularity has taken a bite out of the year-round rental market, making it more difficult for people to find a place to live at reasonable cost for more than a few weeks at a time.
“What I am concerned about is reports that out-of-town entrepreneurs have been scouting existing multi-unit properties with the intent of buying them, moving out the current long-term tenants and turning them into short-term rentals,” Belfast City Councilor Neal Harkness said in a social media post. “Just as those of you who own rental properties expect the city to keep your best interest in mind, long-term renters have, and deserve to have, the same expectation.”
Starting next year, short-term rental property owners in Portland will have to pay a fee and register their rentals with the city. The city will only allow up to 300 non-owner-occupied buildings to be rented for short periods, and no single owner can rent out more than five short-term rentals through Airbnb and similar services.
Belfast could take similar steps, or restrict the number of short-term rentals in certain neighborhoods that might become overcrowded by Airbnbs. City Planner Wayne Marshall cautioned that councilors likely won’t be taking up the question of what, if anything, should be done to regulate short-term rentals until early next year. First, the city will be weighing less controversial changes that it hopes will drive rental property development.
Todd Hall, co-owner of Epoch, a downtown Belfast shop, also owns a three-unit house in Belfast that he rents out to tenants. The house includes one long-term unit that he’s rented out to a reliable longtime tenant, but he’s switched the other two units to short-term rentals.
“I had nightmare experiences with previous tenants who stopped paying rent,” Hall said. That experience resulted in extensive legal fees and made short-term rentals a more appealing option.
“If you can get a good tenant, year-round rental would be the way to go, both financially and lifestyle wise,” Hall said, but those reliable tenants aren’t always easy to find. Hall often sees vacationers and contracted employees, such as visiting physicians, come through his short-term units.
Hall said he believes the impact of short-term rentals on the housing market is being overstated, and that the city would see more of an impact if it encouraged conversions of large single-family homes into two-, three- or four-unit apartment buildings by offering tax credits to owners who convert. Hall said he’s close to closing on a deal on another Belfast home that he’d like to convert into multiple units.
Marshall said that could be possible, but that the state tightly regulates what sorts of projects get those sorts of breaks. Usually, such projects need to create affordable housing units to be eligible.
Before entering trying to hash out short-term rental regulations next year, the council will first tackle a proposed zoning change that would allow property owners to build a one-or two-bedroom structure, detached from the primary residence, on their property. A second change would allow multi-family housing construction along the Route 3 commercial district, where such development is currently prohibited. Those proposals are expected to receive the council’s backing.
Some of the other proposals councilors expect to start ironing out next year:
— Allow homes in certain parts of the city to be converted from single-family houses to multiple apartment units. Such conversions haven’t been allowed in some areas in the past.
— Allow tiny houses on wheels. Any regulations likely would depend heavily on what rules and building standards the state sets for tiny houses in coming months.
— Another potential contentious proposal could be to require annual licenses for all rental units in the city, as well as occasional apartment inspections.
— Changing zoning rules to allow mobile home parks.
Some of these proposals would see a slow payoff, Marshall cautioned. Mobile home developments, single-family home conversions, and new construction take time to plan, finance, permit and develop. But over time, Belfast officials hope some combination of approaches could ultimately make it easier for people who want to rent in Belfast to find a place to set down roots.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.