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MINISTER FOR HOUSING Eoghan Murphy this morning confirmed that under new laws home sharing on platforms such as Airbnb will only be allowed where it is a person’s primary residence.
Homesharing is where a person rents out a part or all of their home for a period of time, usually to tourists who are visiting the country. It can often help homeowners meet their day-to-day bill or pay for their holidays, for example.
However, as home sharing has become more popular as a form of tourism letting, it has resulted in some professional landlords withdrawing houses and apartments that would normally be rented on a long-term basis to instead rent them out as short-term lets, the Department of Housing has said.
And as Ireland is currently in the midst of a deepening housing and homeless crisis, the Department has announced plans to implement new short-term let regulations, to help bring properties back onto the market.
The new short-term let regulations, kicking in on 1 June 2019, will operate on a ‘one host, one home’ model in areas of the country where there is deemed to be a high housing demand.
Basically, homeowners who currently let a second property on a short-term basis will no longer be allowed to do so.
In addition, an annual cap of 90 days will apply for the renting out of a home and homeowners can only rent out their homes for 14 days or less at a time.
Short-term letting will be defined as “the use of a bedroom or bedrooms in a home as paid overnight guest accommodation for a continuous period of up to two weeks”.
Where a home or apartment is a person’s principal private residence, they will be permitted to rent out a room, or rooms, within their home for short-term letting without restriction (eg. B&B-type use).
However, they will only be allowed to sub-let their entire house without planning permission on the short-term market for an altogether period of 90 days or less annually.
The new regulations will require people renting out their homes to register with their local authority.
If someone owns an apartment that they bought as an investment and want to rent it out on Airbnb for specific periods of time, they will now need to seek a special planning permission for this type of use as it is not their principal private residence.
The Department said that in areas of high housing demand (such as Dublin or Cork) it is unlikely that permission would be granted.
Where a house or apartment results in a material change of use, such as the example above, and the owners have not been granted an exemption, this may result in a prosecution for unauthorised development.
According to the Department of Housing, additional resources will be provided within Dublin City Council’s planning section to oversee the registrations and to monitor enforcement.
People found not to be in compliance with these changes will risk criminal conviction under the forthcoming legislation.
With the above information in mind, the Department of Housing has this morning published a number of scenarios homeowners and landlords may find themselves in when it comes to wanting to let rooms.
Here are a few examples:
Mary lives in the two-bedroom house in Cork that she owns near the sea. She wants to let a room occasionally on Airbnb, especially during the summer months. Can she?
Yes, she can let out her room year round, or the entire house for up to 90 days. She has to register with the council for her proposed short-term letting, as well and indicating which days (up to a total of 90) she intends to let out the whole house.
Breda and Martin own an apartment in Temple Bar that they bought as an investment. They used to rent it out to long-term tenants but now prefer to let it through short-term letting sites. They find they are occupied for 40 weekends a year and are nearly always full in the summer. Can they continue the short-term let?
No. Under these new legislative proposals they would need to seek a specific planning permission for this type of use as it is not their principal private residence. As Dublin is in a high demand area, it is unlikely that permission would be granted but this would be a matter for Dublin City Council.
Mike and John own a four-bedroom house which is their principal private residence (PPR). They let one of the rooms to a long-term tenant and the other room they keep on short-term letting websites. They find they have it rented for about 120 days a year. Can they continue?
Yes. If the house is their PPR, they can rent out the rooms on short-term let all year long, using the existing B&B exemptions. They need to register this with the council.
Bigcompany Ltd owns six apartments in a block in Dublin and operates a business renting them out on short-term letting websites for most of the year. Can they?
No, unless they have a specific planning permission that permits short-term letting. Under the proposed legislative changes, they would need a specific planning permission for this type of use, as Dublin is in a high demand area, it is unlikely that permission would be granted but this would be a matter for Dublin City Council.
Friendly Corporate Let Ltd owns a block of apartments which they provide as landing spots to employees of companies in Ireland coming from abroad. How will they be affected?
If the length of stay of each letting exceeds two weeks, then under the new regulations, it would not constitute short-term letting and would be viewed as normal residential use. However, if they operate short-term letting for any individual letting (ie. for periods of less than two weeks at a time), then planning permission will be required for a change of use, unless the permission associated with the property already permits such uses.
Yes.
Amsterdam back in December 2016 signed an accord it hailed as “unique in Europe” with Airbnb banning rentals beyond 60 days a year.
Berlin, which has seen real estate prices soar in recent years, had months earlier passed one of the continent’s strictest regimes to hobble further Airbnb expansion entailing the rental of a maximum one room in one’s dwelling with €100,000 as a deterrent.
Even so, since May, that has been relaxed to allow renting out one’s entire private apartment.
In September, Toronto city introduced new laws which ensure a person can only rent their home as a short-term let if it is their principal residence.
Vancouver, which introduced similar rules, said since the regulations kicked in the number of listings on Airbnb fell from 6,600 in April to 3,742.
As noted above, the new regulations will kick in on 1 June 2019.
However, in order to bring in the changes, amendments to primary planning legislation will now be required.
Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy said exempted development planning regulations have already been drafted, and amendments to primary legislation currently being drafted will “underpin and strengthen the new proposals”.
With a new licensing system for short-term letting hosts and commercial platforms taking some time to develop and come into force, the new rules will only kick in next summer.
With reporting by Christina Finn and AFP.
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The state of all them candidates. No competition to Michael D
@Ciarān: Mickey D is the real deal. Couldn’t think of anyone better.
@Ciarān: if president Higgins was in that group you could equally say the state of him ,I can’t say I know of anything outstanding that he’s done ,he praised some men at a funeral that I would have had little respect for in the recent past
@FlopFlipU: What more would you have asked him to do? He is an intelligent, eloquent speaker who represents us well abroad and at home and is always visibly proud to do so.
@Ciarān: Michael D isn’t a patch on McAleese, and is too old for another 7 year term. Joan Freeman will have my vote assuming her candidacy isn’t blocked. Fantastic woman, and without wishing to be sexist I think the women elected to that office have far outperformed any of the men that went before them (although gender is not why I’ll vote for Freeman, but worthy of note all the same)
@Ciarān: I thought the agenda of the last election was to eliminate Labour, let’s complete the job and give higgins the boot too.
@B-Tech Roadman: What per cent of the population actually voted for his party in the last election?
@FlopFlipU: He established TG4 for one thing, and struck the perfect balance in marking the 1916 centenary.
@Trevor Hayden: eh yeah right whatever
@Ciarān: He is a hypocrite and a champagne socialist.
Duffy. A great defender of bloodsports and hunts. No thanks
@Good Early: No joe duffy. ring him at 2 everyday.
@Sean Conway: tbh I’m in shock Duffy isn’t running. Bet he’d run under FG. If mims o Callaghan had ran ,wouldn’t she effectively have been a FF candidate ?
So Joan couldn’t answer the question in Irish. Why doesn’t it mention whether the other two could?
@Joe Lennon:
Maybe no one cared? The fact she hasn’t in the past wasted her time and energy on a useless language is the first good thing I have heard about her.
@Joe Lennon: No idea. Maybe she was the only person asked a question in Irish? They only gave Feeney a token mention, suggesting our impartial press have wrote him off already.
@P.J. Nolan: the first good thing you’ve heard about her? You know she started Pieta House right? Or were you just being facetious?
@ObsidianShine:
I was well aware of Pieta house, I’ve been there as a visitor! I should have said it was the first good thing since the start of this campaign.
@ObsidianShine: and then put god in charge of the finances. That’s a no from me
@P.J. Nolan: Gligín
Democracy means we have a contest. The issue of cost of an election should not come into it. There is no price for Democracy.
Let the Candidates declare themselves, let’s hear the debate and let’s vote. Long live the Republic.
@Gavin O’Brien: ‘Democracy means we have a contest.’ Are you sure you aren’t confusing democracy with a game show, the needs of the citizens with the needs of TV viewers and the media who profit from endless ‘polls’? We have democratically elected a man who does the job well. Even these ‘candidates’ admit this. Which begs the question: if this is the case, why are they running?
@alan: You obviously have not a clue what a democracy is or how it works if you think we have a man democratically elected. He stated he would take the job for seven years not fourteen.
Fourteen years is too long a time for one of the most powerful positions in the state in my opinion. We need to have an election to hold Michael D accountable for his actions during his term as president whether you agree with them or not you get to chose at the ballot.
@brian boru: ‘to hold Michael D accountable for his actions during his term as President’. What actions would they be?
@sean o’dhubhghaill: that’s up to everyone to find out and make a decision on. Just because some people just see the veneer and the position is powerless, doesn’t mean others don’t think he may not be the best candidate for the job of president.
@brian boru: You do not know what the job is if you think it is so powerful. There are powers but they are clearly defined and limited with various backstops.
@brian boru: Okay, you think a fourteen year term limit is too long. What’s that got to do with having an election for the role? Completely different topic that we can and will vote on if we have to. That’s like saying that you buy Smarties to send a message. No one knows what your message is, and that’s not even why we’re here in the first place.
Joan Freeman best of this bunch , by a long shot , she’s far more in touch with the what’s going in peoples lives on than others , she sees it every day .
@Margaret: yet I couldn’t possibly vote for someone who admittedly deprived citizens of equal rights.
@sequoia: Who did that as the President does not make the laws they sign off on them if they do not break the constitution. Learn about the actual powers of the job before you blame somebody for something that was not their fault
@Gary Kearney: she voted no in the 8th amendment referendum is what i think sequoia is referring to. it is also the reason that i wouldn’t vote for her.
…..President Freeman, great name for a free Republic.
@Brian McDonnell: Freeperson surely
I thought the object of the last election was to eliminate Labour, let’s give higgins the boot too.
His state funeral will cost us a fortune, lets not add to the expense.
@Trevor Hayden: How will it “add to the expense” to pay the same amount to a different person for the sake of it? What difference would it make to the main political parties? Have you noticed taxes being reduced due to savings made, or something?
Great. We’re seriously being asked to consider the likes of Duffy, who doesn’t understand the Presidency and really only wants this on his CV? Or Freeman, an uber-catholic President? Would she refuse to sign the legislation to give effect to the wishes of the people in the referendum? How does she feel about the proposed blasphemy changes? Michael D will brush the likes of them aside, and in the process they’ll have their secrets outed and reputations tattered, just like what happened Sean Gallagher.
I agree, there’s not much to offer voters. Also, internationally, who on earth cares if Duffy is a good pal of Sean Gallagher’s? He’s running for President, not trying to get into a nightclub, for Pete’s sake.
Can anyone nominate themselves , my god a sorry bunch . Spare us from iona . keep going michael d…
Has Michael d achieved anything of note personally outside of the culture of our disgraceful gombeen politics, like Freeman and Duffy? I can’t think of anything!
Duffy is clearly a champion of the patriarchy – it’s easy to imagine him beating his chest and roaring like Tarzan in celebration of his own mediocrity. Freeman is a queen of the matriarchy and if elected will suffocate the country with touchy feely mammy meetings and whinging. Higgins is wise, caring, and eloquent. His dogs would make better presidents that the other two.
@Martello Mulligan:
What do u mean that we have no other options ? Michael D couldn’t give a fiddlers about what u mentioned, he totally backed millions of state ( as in our taxes) money being poured into a vanity project in Galway. Also where did he get his accent ? Limerick, North Cork or Galway ? Hardly indigenous to any of those regions. I remain to be convinced that he’s the best on offer.
In the land of the blind, the man with one eye is king.
The only way any of those massive egos is above Michael D is in height. How they can carry their self importance has me baffled. No worries there Michael D. Slainte.
What a waste of money. Michael D will destroy them on every level there is
@Tommy C: Have people forgotten which party mickey is a member of. Yes liebour who along with ffg screwed the country up. He has been paid 200,000 a year for the last 7 years and now wants another 7. He is a traitor to everything the old labour party stood for.
@Derek Poutch: He was old Labour real Labour and has never changed.
The promises are all out already for these candidate, do they not realise its just a figurehead position.
Powerless county councils are enjoying a few weeks of presidential summer glory. Then it’s back to waste collection, street lights and the administration of grants for construction and repair of footpaths.
Is Bono on the list of candidates
as he still hasn’t found what he’s looking for ?
Well this is gonna be a right sh*t show from start to finish.
Sad to not see Bosco running this year
Pieta House is one of finest initiatives in the country, but I think we need people involved in mental health so positively to stay in that field as there are few enough batting for it.
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