Government introduced the housing and municipal affairs statutes amendment act, 2025 (Bill 25) to the legislative assembly on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. 

These amendments will support the implementation of small-scale, multi-unit zoning and changes to the Province’s short-term rental rules.

If passed by the legislature, the amendments will affect the following provincial statutes:

Local Government Act and Vancouver Charter:

The proposed changes will ensure all local governments are meeting the small-scale, multi-unit housing requirements allowing more diverse forms of housing, such as triplexes, rowhomes and townhomes, consistently throughout B.C.

While the Province expects only a small number of communities to be affected, the changes will remove barriers to the development of small-scale, multi-unit housing by clarifying where this type of housing will be allowed.

If passed, this bill will amend the Local Government Act and Vancouver Charter to:

• remove barriers to create consistent conditions throughout the Province for small-scale, multi-unit housing by clarifying the definition of where it will be allowed.
  • This change will prevent local governments from excluding zones where small-scale, multi-unit housing should be allowed or making further restrictions that make it more difficult to build anything other than single-family or duplex housing for communities with more than 5,000 people, and within urban-containment boundaries.
• expand the list of provincial site standards that can be regulated:
  • the amount of buildable area and number of buildings on a lot;
  • housing forms (to allow triplexes, rowhomes and townhouses); and 
  • parking requirements (to ensure excessive parking requirements that mandate several parking spaces per unit are not limiting housing development).

If monitoring indicates that overly restrictive site standards and excessive off-street parking requirements continue to serve as barriers to the viability of homes that families need in some communities, the Province can put its recommended minimum standards into regulations and require local governments to implement those standards to enable small-scale, multi-unit housing.

Short-Term Rental Accommodation Act:

To ensure homes are being used to house people, not speculation, the proposed amendments to the Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act include:

• improving clarity for existing or prospective short-term rental hosts;
• amending the definition of “principal residence” to help existing or prospective short-term rental hosts more easily understand and comply with the act, and support timely enforcement;
• revising the process for reviews of registration and administrative-penalty decisions to ensure consistency; and
• improving the ability to share information between government entities, to make sure rules are easily understood so they can be applied consistently, especially regarding what can be done with information shared under formal agreements; and
• strengthening enforcement, with new tools to further deter people from breaking the rules by:
  • enabling compliance and enforcement actions when false information is provided during the registration process;
  • publication of compliance actions and orders to deter non-compliance;
  • allowing the director of short-term rentals to reduce or cancel administrative monetary penalties by agreement to encourage faster compliance; and
  • amendments would also be made to make all sections of the act available to Modern Treaty Nations, so First Nations, such as the Tsawwassen First Nation, can apply the Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act on their lands through a co-ordination agreement.  

Learn More: 

For more information about B.C. legislation, visit: https://strongerbc.gov.bc.ca/Legislation