THE HEAD OF a housing charity has said stronger enforcement of regulations on short-term lets is needed to address the crisis in the rental sector.

John Mark McCafferty, CEO of Threshold, the national housing charity, told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that there has “never been so little in the way of available longterm rental accommodation”. 

Despite new regulations on short-term lets in 2019, he said the number of short-terms lets has increased while there is still an “abject lack of longterm rental housing”. 

“Our advisers are taking to people who just cannot access accommodation in the private rented sector, they’re worried about losing their accommodation if they’re in some kind of dispute, they’re worried about a notice of termination because they have no options,” he said.

McCafferty  said a stronger enforcement of the regulations directly through the platforms that property owners are using would help to address the issue.

Yesterday Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien told Newstalk’s On the Record with Gavan Reilly that the government is looking at some measures to restrict the letting of full properties and second properties for the short-term letting market. 

“The regulations that went back to 2019 actually do preclude people from letting out a second property for more than 90 days in any given year unless you got planning permission specifically to do that,” he said. “That’s not necessarily being adhered to.”

He said regulation of platforms would mean that property owners would not be able to advertise an apartment or house unless they had a registration number from a local authority.