Wasaga Beach Council Hear Presentations on Short Term Rentals and Housing Crisis

Wasaga Beach is a popular destination for summer vacation not only across the province, but the world. Home to the longest freshwater beach in the world, it’s no wonder tourists flock to the area to take in the views. However, this has created a problem for both citizens and businesses who call Wasaga Beach home.

During two engagement sessions with citizens, the municipality has learned of issues with the city's short-term rental market, citizens feeling unsafe in their homes, noise complaints and general overcrowding in neighbourhoods where 20 people take occupancy in a rental unit designed for 6 residents.

With a 20-30% yearly growth in the short-term rental and accommodation market, Wasaga Beach City Council invited Samantha White, the account executive from Granicus Host Compliance, to give a presentation during a recent Council meeting to offer their services to address the challenges of monitoring short term rentals. Granicus Host Compliance currently monitors 27 local agencies to monitor short-term rentals, including Georgian Bay, Tiny Township and Collingwood.

“Without a System in place less than 10% of STR owners voluntarily get registered and pay all of their taxes and fees,” says Samantha White.

As of March 2024, Wasaga Beach has 759 listed short-term rentals, 90% of those being single-family homes. The presentation to the council was to offer information on Granicus services to see if the municipality would purchase their STR monitoring software.

During that same council meeting, a presentation was given on short- and long-term solutions to the Wasaga Beaches housing crisis which is directly affected by the municipalities's short-term rental issues.