Between the health crisis and new restrictions introduced in Toronto last fall, the city's short-term rental market has been absolutely rocked in recent months, to the delight of those who know how detrimental so many "ghost hotels" are to the housing supply and long-term renters.

Despite the provincewide ban on such listings in the height of the pandemic, thousands of Airbnbs were still hosting guests in Toronto throughout 2020 — which, coupled with the fact that the city already had nearly 10,000 illegal short-term rentals, didn't lend residents much faith in the integrity of the industry and its stakeholders.

Due in part to a decline in travel and tourism, there has more recently been a glut of Airbnbs coming onto the market as normal apartments, driving rent prices down and vacancy rates up, especially in condo buildings once notorious for weekend partiers from out-of-town.

The short-term rentals that still remain now have to be registered with the City, among adhering to other new rules, which means that this year we know a bit more about these units — including which neighbourhoods have the highest numbers of them.

According to the City's latest data on registered short-term rentals, there are nearly 2,000 listings.

But, this number only accounts for those owners who registered their units by Jan. 1 as they were supposed to. Just one month before this deadline, a paltry 10 per cent of owners had done so, meaning that there are potentially many more Airbnbs operating in the city at the moment.