How ‘the Montreal shuffle’ is destroying a city’s rental market

Earlier this year, a fire tore through an Old Montreal building killing seven people, six of whom were staying in Airbnbs at the time. The tragedy led to greater scrutiny of Montreal’s property market where traditional rental units are being carved up and turned into multiple short-term rentals, and a real estate manoeuvre known as ‘the Montreal shuffle’ is making these moves possible at scale.

Ethan Cox is a senior editor and co-founder of Ricochet Media. He says that greed is driving the proliferation of short-term rental buildings, also known as “ghost hotels”, in Montreal. “You could rent out at the normal market rate and you’d still be making a fortune… but you just have to make that extra buck by exploiting international students, by putting stuff out illegally on the short-term rental market,” says Cox.

So how does the scheme work? What is the proliferation of short-term rentals doing to a city once known as one of Canada’s best places to rent? What is the government doing to attempt to regulate the problem, and why isn’t it working?

You can subscribe to The Big Story podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google and Spotify.

You can also find it at thebigstorypodcast.ca.