Short-term Rentals
This page has been created to share information regarding short-term rentals including where they are and are not permitted in the town, how property owners can register their short-term rentals with the Town and what impacts short-term rentals might be having on Wolfville's housing availability.
Registering your Short-term Rental
As of August 2024, the Province of Nova Scotia has released new information and registration requirements for Short-term Rentals.
Please view the Province's news release here.
All short-term rentals in Wolfville must be registered with the Town of Wolfville and Province of Nova Scotia
Click here to register your short-term rental with the Province of Nova Scotia.
Contact the Town of Wolfville's Development Officer, Marcia Elliott to register your short-term rental.
- Phone: 902-542-3718
- Email: melliott@wolfville.ca
A letter of confirmation from the Town's Development Officer confirming your short-term rental meets the Land Use Bylaw regulations is required to complete registration with the Province. This letter will only be provided if your short-term rental(s) meet the requirements as stated in section 4.30 of the Land Use Bylaw. Please review the requirements below.
To view the full Land-use Bylaw for Wolfville, click here.
What is a short-term rental?
A short-term rental can be a bedroom, suite, apartment, or entire home that is rented for a short period of time (i.e. less than 1 month at a time). Hotels, inns and bed and breakfasts are examples of short-term rentals, however a homeowner can also rent out a bedroom, apartment or entire home as a short-term rental. Short-term rentals have grown in popularity due to websites such as Airbnb and VRBO.
Are they permitted in Wolfville?
Yes, short-term rentals like Airbnbs are permitted in all zones that permit residential uses except for the Low Density Restricted Residential (R1) Zone. Click the Zoning Map on the right hand side to view this map. Any short-term rental must be in the homeowners primary residence. That means the homeowner must live in the house they are renting and when renting the entire home, the short-term rental may not be rented for more than 150 days per calendar year.
The pie chart below shows the zones that the identified short-term rentals in the Town are in. This chart shows that 26.7% of all short-term rentals in Wolfville are in the R1 zone and are therefore non-compliant and must discontinue use.
How do short-term rentals impact housing availability?
Short-term rentals provide many benefits such as income to the property owner, accommodation for tourists and benefits associated with tourism such as local spending. Short-term rentals also, however, may impact the availability of housing for those seeking long-term and permanent housing. Therefore, it is important to understand the impact of short-term rentals on Wolfville's housing stock.
The majority of short-term rentals (excluding inns and hotels) are in entire homes, apartments or self-contained units. That means that entire dwelling units that could be rented as long-term rentals or used as permanent residences are being used for short-term rentals instead. Less than 2% of all short-term rentals in the Town are private rooms in residential houses.
Why does this matter?
Nova Scotia and much of Canada is currently experiencing a housing crisis. This means that there are not enough homes available in the price ranges that those seeking housing can afford. Understanding the potential impacts of short-term rentals is just one way to better understand this crisis.
It is currently presumed that Wolfville’s rental vacancy rate is less than 2% (anecdotally, and given the gaps in data collected for our region, many believe it is close to 0%). The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CHMC) collects housing data, however Wolfville is excluded. Data from Kings County, however, indicates a vacancy rate of 0.2% (CMHC).
A healthy rental vacancy rate in Canada is set at a minimum of 3% (CHMC), however a vacancy rate is only one measure of how “healthy” the rental market is. This number tells us simply how many rental units are sitting vacant. While the vacancy rate increased slightly, the cost of housing increased in HRM by an average of 4.6% at the same time, not something that would typically happen in tandem, though some rents increased 30 – 40%. Based on web searches for rental units in the Wolfville area and Kings County region, rental prices have also surged locally and and supply is vey low, leaving residents struggling to find long-term rental units.
The Town's preliminary research into the presence of short-term rentals suggests that there are a minimum of 51 short-term rentals in residential units in the Town. Of those, 47 are either entire homes or entire apartments, meaning they are dwelling units that could be rented to individuals or families as long-term rentals. When broken down by number of bedrooms, those 47 homes and apartments contain 93 rental bedrooms. This is an increase from 30 entire home short-term rentals in 2022 (60 bedrooms).
To understand if 47 homes and apartments is a large portion of Wolfville's housing stock, we must understand how many homes are being built each year to off-set the low vacancies and high demands for housing in the Town. The average number of single family homes built annually over the past 5 years in Wolfville is 5.4. The average number of semi-detached homes built per year is 2.2, and an average of 2 multi-unit dwellings built per year. The increase in short-term rental listings between October 2022 and October 2024 is 17, or 8.5 new short-term rental listing per year.
It is essential Staff and Council enforce short-term rentals to ensure they are compliant with the existing Land-use Bylaws.
Please complete the surveys below to help the Town better understand short-term rentals in Wolfville.