Galway council to write to advertising watchdog over Airbnb posts in rent pressure zone

WHILE GALWAY IS set to be the scene for plenty of holidaymakers over the summer months, Galway City Council is to write to the Advertising Standards Authority to complain that online short-term letting platforms are regularly breaching planning laws.

The council is contending that advertisements for properties within the Galway Rent Pressure Zone – which covers the entire city – need to be removed.

Its councillors passed a motion in favour of the move. It read: “That Galway City Council will write to the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland to complain that short-term letting platforms are carrying advertisements for properties within the Galway Rent Pressure Zone which are in breach of planning regulations.”

In 2019, new rules were brought in nationally which require properties to either get planning permission or apply for exemptions from local authorities to be legally advertised on Airbnb. 

Under regulations that are already in place, planning permission is required for homeowners in RPZs who are letting out their entire home (principal private residence) for short-term lets of more than 90 days in total in a year while they are away or if they are letting out a second property they own as a short-term let.

Legislation

Legislation was due to be introduced to bring 12,000 short-term let properties back into long-term use, but this hit a setback in March when the EU Commission sought an extension to a consulting period for added information on the proposal.

This short-term let register was approved by the government with the plan requiring that properties advertised for short-term letting via online platforms such as Airbnb have a valid registration number with Fáilte Ireland.

Any host offering accommodation for periods of up to and including 21 nights will need to be registered.

However, due to the EU Commission’s intervention, it’s now not expected to be in place until next year.

The Commission is instead believed to want to roll out any register of this nature on an EU-wide basis.

Spanish Arches in Galway Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

The councillor behind the motion, Niall Murphy of the Green Party, said the city’s housing crisis is becoming too severe to wait for the legislation.

“That legislation continues to be delayed and it has certainly suited the advertising platforms and the landlords that everyone has agreed that we will fix the problem ‘soon’,” he told The Journal.

“In the meanwhile the existing regulations should be enforced. We do not need new legislation to enforce the rule that short-term lets without planning permission in a RPZ are not legal.

“The platforms, such as Airbnb, should assume no permission exists until the landlord provides proof.”

Sound of suitcases

A common sound fills the city centre at this time of year which had not been anywhere near as prevalent in previous summers, according to Martin O’Connor, chief executive of housing charity COPE Galway.

“Anytime from Friday afternoon on into the evening, you’ll hear wheels of suitcases rolling along pavements through the city centre and the back streets. You’ll see people with the phones out looking at their maps. It’s very noticeable.

“Galway is a tourist destination and that’s problematic. You have a very high number of short-term lets being used for holiday purposes and that damages the availability and also the affordability for what’s left.”

O’Connor said a “release valve” does exist every summer with student accommodation emptying until college returns, but the options are still getting scarcer and also affect emergency accommodation to prevent people falling into rough sleeping.

Council enforcement

Murphy said he believes his own council needs to step up and act against any planning breaches.

Under normal planning law, local authorities have the powers to enforce any breaches around short-term lets as they still require planning permission.

However, due to some locations such as Galway seeing the number of properties reach treble figures on online platforms, councils generally argue they would need significant additional staffing to enforce the breaches.

Galway City Council did not respond in time for publication on whether it would seek to use planning legislation on short-term lets.

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage told The Journal that “local authorities are responsible for the enforcement” of the 2019 regulations which subject short-term lets in RPZs to planning permission requirements.

However, it ruled out boosting staffing to local authorities to assist with this, instead putting the ball back into Galway City Council’s court.

“Under Section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, each chief executive is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authority for which he/she is responsible,” the department said.

O’Connor said COPE works with 80 families in emergency accommodation to ourselves and 10 further families that reside in “own-door units on a transitional basis”. Around three quarters of these families are based in the city.

“We’ve plateaued in terms of private emergency accommodation that’s available to us. Through tourist season, it can be particularly challenging.

“We’re reliant now, the same as other parts of the country, on private emergency accommodation, so that’s bed and breakfast and hotel accommodation. But there are pressures on that front in the summer period due to Galway being a tourist destination and attraction.

“But all of this is time ticking on in people’s lives. The short-term lets coming back into long term isn’t the entire solution to the solution. Because that would give an injection of rental properties into the market, which in turn, we would expect would address the affordability challenge with the availability challenge.

Airbnb, whose company website includes guidelines on “responsible hosting” for its users in Ireland, told The Journal it would “welcome regulation” and added it wants to “partner with the government” on rules for the sector, by way of targetting “speculators” who host homes through the platform.

“As the government continues to consider new measures and planning rules, Airbnb is steadfast in our support for a clear and simple national host register that supports everyday hosts and clamps down on speculators that drive housing concerns.

“The majority of hosts in Ireland are families who share their primary home for around three nights a month on average with approximately more than half of Hosts in Ireland doing so to afford rising living costs,” a statement from the company said.

Advertising Standards Authority did not respond when contacted.