For some Vancouver-Whistler homeowners, the Olympic Games will be a rental windfall as visitors will be looking for a place to stay
Erika Pantages feels she and her husband, Tony, struck gold by agreeing to rent the upper floor of their Strathcona home for $13,750 during the Olympic Games next year.
Her friends aren't so sure.
"A lot of people think we're crazy because they say we could wait and get more, but why be greedy?" Pantages said. "We only get $3,500 a month when we rent it out now, so if someone is going to pay me an extra $10,000, I think that's fine."
Homeowners Erika (above) and Tony Pantages are renting out the upper floor of their East Side home during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. They will get $13,750 during the Games.
With just over a year to go before the Games, Metro Vancouver homeowners are busy chasing potential windfalls that await by renting their properties to Olympics visitors.
Check out any number of online listings services and you'll find a huge range of housing types and prices, but nothing in the bargain category. How about $750 a day for a "beautiful Vancouver basement suite" or $45,000 for a two-bedroom Yaletown condo for a month or a whopping $250,000 for a West Vancouver mansion?
"I have done a lot of research and I don't think people are going to get the prices they think they will," Pantages said. "They could get greedy and wind up not renting their suites at all."
Her 1,200-square-foot suite, which features two bedrooms, a rooftop deck, wood fireplace and office area, will be occupied by two visitors for about three weeks of a five-week period around the Games. The listings broker, Prime Strategies, uses the week before and after the visitors' stay to inspect and clean up the suite.
Pantages said she and Tony considered leaving Vancouver during the Games so they could rent out their entire house, but they didn't want to deal with the issue of removing and storing all their personal belongings.
"I also thought it would be good for us to be here so I can monitor what's going on upstairs," she said.
Prime Strategies finds Olympic rental properties mainly for corporate clients who will be in Vancouver to work, something that appeals to Pantages.
"You could try to rent it yourself on Craigslist and end up with some crazy family or something," she said. "I don't need that."
Pantages has signed a marketing agreement with Prime that calls for the broker to pay her half the rental total when it finds a renter this year and the other half by November. She's free to search for a better deal if she can find one before Prime finds a suitable renter.
Ian Hamilton, director of sports services for Prime Strategies, said there is still a strong demand for downtown Vancouver condos, and he has secured about a third of the 725 bedrooms he's looking for.
His company assigns units a gold, silver or bronze rating -- depending on their location and amenities -- and charges accordingly. Pantages' unit got a silver ranking and the rental rate they negotiated could be more than satisfactory, given the current state of the economy.
SHIFTS IN SUPPLY AND DEMAND
VIP Mountain Holidays owner Ben Thomas said his Whistler-based rental agency has noticed a definite drop in demand for Olympic rental properties.
"A year ago, there was almost no supply and tons of demand but now it's the opposite -- tons of supply and not much demand," he said.
Thomas said many corporate clients have already secured their Whistler rental accommodation needs for the Games, while the economic slowdown has forced others to cut their budgets, so they're not sure what they can afford.
He said most of the demand for Whistler rentals now comes from spectators wanting a place for three to five nights. Corporate clients usually want to stay for a longer period of time.
VIP has found more than 200 units for clients so far and has another 50 available now, but few clients are in a mood to book anything these days.
"We get 10 calls a day from owners who want to rent their properties, but we don't even take calls from owners outside the main village [because demand has slowed down]," Thomas said.
Condos in the main village have generally attracted monthly rental rates of $7,000 to $10,000 a bedroom.
Thomas has heard all the stories about certain properties fetching monthly rates of $100,000 or more, but feels most of them are exaggerated.
"As far as I know, most of those have been rumours and those prices have not been paid," he said. "In many cases, the expectations that people had have not been realized."
EMR Vacation Rentals Inc. partner Tim Bonner said his agency has at least 150 Olympics accommodation listings now and gets more every week. It costs $250 to list a property on emrvacationrentals.com, and the agency also gets a percentage of the rental price.
He said the demand for downtown Vancouver condos remains strong and most are attracting prices of about $400 a day for each bedroom. So a two-bedroom condo would fetch more than $22,000 for the month of February 2010.
But Condominium Home Owners Association executive director Tony Gioventu warned there are potential pitfalls for all parties involved in the rental of condo units during the Olympics.
"I know there will be horror stories out there, like people who think they have rented a unit and then come here only to find it has been double- or triple-booked," he said.
Gioventu advises condo owners and renters to use licensed brokers or agents to ensure the legitimacy of the transaction.
"If you try to rent it out yourself, who do you end up with?" he said. "How do you deal with someone from Europe who comes over and trashes your place and then gets on a plane and goes home?"
Gioventu said condo owners have to make sure they don't break any strata corporation bylaws when they rent their units. Many strata corporations prohibit rentals or restrict them to certain time periods and several downtown buildings won't allow occupants under the age of 55.
Condo owners can also be held responsible for any costs related to tenants who make too much noise or misuse common facilities or commit parking violations.
Gioventu expects that Games visitors who rent condos will create a huge parking problem because most condo owners will leave their cars behind.
"So we're going to have a big influx of visitors with rental cars and nowhere to park," he said.
Insurance Bureau of Canada vice-president Lindsay Olson said it's extremely important for homeowners to tell their insurance companies about a change of occupancy if they rent their homes to visitors. She said insurers will then determine if there are any issues to deal with around coverage of things like theft, damage and liability.
In some cases, insurers might want to reduce the coverage they provide or charge a higher premium to maintain the same coverage.
Olympic visitors who want to stay in a Metro Vancouver hotel room still don't have access to the few that will be made available. Vanoc has taken most of the supply, and non-Vanoc hotel rooms won't be released until early March.
Tourism officials have no control over the room rates to be charged to the public, but have encouraged hotels to provide fair market rates.
"We expect rooms will be sold at a premium, similar to the rate charged during the high season in the summer," said Tourism Vancouver representative Walt Judas. "That would be reasonable because people expect to pay more for a room during the Olympics."
At least one Vancouver accommodation provider has already committed to providing a reasonable, non-gouging rate during the Games.
The Vancouver Central Hostel on Granville Street, which normally charges $26 a night for a dormitory bed, will charge $40 during the Games. About 30 per cent of the 136 beds are already booked for the Games period.
At the Salt Lake City Games in 2002, one hostel boosted its rate from $12 a night to $200 a night.
Source: bconstantineau@vancouversun.com
