Has Prince Edward County's STA Market Become a Housing Problem? Residents Are Divided

A long-running local argument in Prince Edward County has resurfaced in recent weeks: are short-term accommodations (STAs) simply homeowners sharing space with tourists, or have they become a commercial business that is draining the county's housing supply?

There is no single answer. Two competing views, each backed by data, are circulating among residents, and public discussion around the issue shows the community is genuinely split.

The Numbers

AirDNA market estimates show roughly 1,434 active STA listings in Prince Edward County, about one in every 13 homes. Muskoka, The Blue Mountains, and Niagara-on-the-Lake show similarly high concentrations relative to their housing stock.

Those figures sit alongside a 2024 study by McGill University's Dr. David Wachsmuth, commissioned by the Ontario Restaurant Hotel & Motel Association, which found Ontario renter households have paid an estimated $2.6 billion in additional rent since 2017 because of short-term rentals in the province. The same research found that short-term rental activity is a major driver of rent growth in high-tourism communities without regulations, while cities with principal-residence restrictions see much more modest effects.

Nationally, Statistics Canada estimated that 107,266 short-term rentals across Canada in 2023 were "potential long-term dwellings," entire units listed often enough that they could plausibly serve as long-term housing, about 30% of all short-term listings that year. Researchers cautioned, though, that identifying a unit as "potential" housing doesn't mean it would actually return to the rental market if short-term rentals disappeared.

Two Views, One Debate

Supporters of View 1 argue the STA market no longer resembles simple home-sharing. Ontario research found 43% of STA listings are run by hosts with multiple properties, and the top 10% of operators collect nearly 44% of all STA revenue in the province. In this view, homes that could house families, seniors, or local workers are instead serving visitors, and that shrinks the long-term housing supply.

Supporters of View 2 counter that STAs provide income for homeowners, generate tourism spending that supports local businesses, and create jobs tied to visitors. They argue the housing shortage stems from decades of underbuilding, slow planning approvals, and rising construction costs, not STAs alone, and that restricting them won't fix a shortage rooted in too little new construction.

County Context

Prince Edward County has regulated STAs since 2018 through a licensing program. In September 2020, council froze new "whole home" licences, partly a pandemic response and partly a chance to study the program's impact on affordable housing. In September 2022, council stopped accepting new applications for non-owner-occupied STAs altogether, though previously licensed properties were grandfathered. Owner-occupied STAs are still permitted.

What Residents Are Saying

Public discussion on the issue reflects the same split. Several residents have questioned who benefits from STA licences, including whether council members or their relatives own any, and argued a licence should not transfer when a property is sold.

STA hosts pushed back, describing long-term tenancy as risky by comparison. One described going more than three years without rent before an eviction was completed, and argued tenant protection laws move too slowly to protect landlords. Several in this group said a moratorium on new licences unfairly limits what owners can do with their own property.

Others took a broader view, arguing the county has built detailed rules for short-term accommodations while leaving long-term rental housing comparatively unregulated, and that frustration shouldn't fall only on STA hosts. A few comments noted the debate often blurs two different groups: hosts running multiple properties as a business, and individual owners who simply happen to own more than one home. Owning several properties, one commenter noted, is not the same as operating them commercially.

The Bigger Question

Underlying this debate is a bigger question: whether residential housing in tourism-heavy communities has quietly become a commercial accommodation business, and if so, how it should be regulated. That question, including proposals like capping STA ownership at one property per beneficial owner, has not been formally put before council.

What is clear is that the debate isn't settled by the existing licensing freeze. Residents on every side, hosts, tenants, and homeowners alike, are asking the county to look at the housing market as a whole, not just at STAs in isolation.