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ONLY 50 SHORT-term let planning permissions have been granted by local authorities since new rules were introduced three years ago, despite over 16,000 properties listed on Airbnb.
According to new figures, while there have been over 142 planning applications submitted to local authorities for a ‘change of use’ to allow for short-term letting, only 50 of these have been granted.
The figures, revealed in a Parliamentary Question from Social Democrats Housing Spokesperson Cian O’Callaghan, show that there has been next to no engagement with short-term letting rules introduced by the Government in 2019.
Under these rules, home-sharing is only permitted when a house is a person’s primary residence within a designated rent pressure zone (RPZ).
For anyone with a second property seeking to let it on a short-term basis requires ‘change of use’ planning permission.
Currently, there are RPZ’s within 22 local authorities. This includes the four local authorities in Dublin.
Within those local authorities, there have been no applications submitted for a change of use planning permission within Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Dublin Fingal and South Dublin councils.
In Dublin City Council, there have been 29 applications between 2019 and 2021, with no applications submitted so far in 2022.
Of these applications, only five have been granted.
As of 21 December, there are 16,181 homes available to rent on Airbnb across Ireland, according to data from Inside Airbnb.
Of these, 3,786 are available to rent in Dublin.
Speaking to The Journal, O’Callaghan said that this disparity shows how the legislation introduced in 2019 was “destined to fail”.
“The disparity between the number of properties that are legally operating as short-term lets and the number advertised on Airbnb highlights how these measures were designed to fail,” O’Callaghan said.
“While new measures to regulate short term lets are due to be introduced, it is critically important that these measures work to prevent an over-supply of short term lets which can lie empty for most of the year in areas with a high demand for housing.
“Regulating short term lets alone is not a sufficient response to the housing crisis of housing – however it can make a real difference to the supply of homes that are available for long term renting.”
It comes just weeks after the Government announced that it would be introducing a new short-term lets register, which is set to be run by Fáilte Ireland.
The proposals were brought to Cabinet by Tourism Minister Catherine Martin in early December, with short-term rental properties set to be required to have a valid registration number with Fáilte Ireland.
Under the regulations, any host offering accommodation for periods up to and including 21 nights will need to be registered.
Property owners will have to register via the online portal, input their details and confirm they have planning permission, where applicable.
Before advertising properties, booking platforms will be obliged to only advertise properties with a valid Fáilte Ireland registration number.
Fáilte Ireland will also be empowered to issue fines, with a €300 fixed payment notice for property owners if they advertise without a registration number.
The body will also have the option to bring the case to the district court where the maximum fine is up to €5,000.
Government sources have said that previous attempts to regulate short-term lets were “onerous”, with inspections of planning permission being carried out by local authorities.
These changes aims to stop the issue at source – without planning permission for the property to be a short-term let, they will not be allocated a Fáilte Ireland number, and as a result, will not be allowed to advertise the property online.
Additional reporting by Christina Finn
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So I take it that the ultimate aim is to stop tourism.
@Barry Wilson: You may not have noticed that we have a housing crisis. It is obscene that houses and apartments can be left empty for much of the year in areas of housing need. AirBnB skews the housing market and the function of planning legislation is to reset the balance. There is no reason why planning permission should not be granted in areas where there is no housing shortage. Regulating short-term lettings will not stop tourism.
@Rob Goodbody: so its up to people who’s hard earned money is invested in a property to provide some sort of pension to sort out the government’s mess and then to pay 52% tax for the privilege ,no thanks.
@Rob Goodbody: Rental properties should not be part of the government’s housing policy. The amount of vacant council houses and vacant homes in disrepair should be the government’s focus firstly. Airbnb provides a service for landlords to do what they want with their property. Nothing more than that. So to claim that Airbnb skews the housing market is incorrect. Its the government’s housing policies that skew the market.
@P.S. I Hate You: But they’re landlords of a residential property, not a hotel, not a B&B or other commercial property.
That’s what the planning application was initially granted and intended for, for the build, for the estate.
If you change the designation to use it solely for Airbnb, then yes, you change the designation to some sort of hotel and the planning permission should be, has to be declined.
Airbnb, or the use of it, has been changed from renting out a home for a few weeks while the owner is away, to a fully commercial short-term rental business web site.
The requirement to apply for a planning permission has been there for ages and with it the limitation of what a landlord can do with his property. It has been expanded to Airbnb for the above reasons and I can’t see anything wrong with it.
It’s now time to finally enforce the rules.
@Wolfgang Bonow: your 100% right. By allowing people buy a property in a residential area and then to change it’s use, where it’s going from being someone’s home that they are renting to a tourists accommodation where that person can charge a weeks rent for 2 nights and keep long term renters out of the property all for profits is definitely contributing to the shortage of properties on the market.
We have a current situation where the government are renting hotel rooms that are meant for tourists to put families in because they can’t find housing and tourists are staying in houses that were built for families to live in. So it’s about time this was regulated and the buildings proper use was restored.
@john O neill:
Yes.
Money in the bank being devalued at 10% a year.
Legalized robbery
The reason for the housing shortage is the number of people coming into the country. Asylum seekers are only part of that. The main part is employment by multi nationals. The jobs they create and the building and service jobs that go with them are filled by incomers, because the native population is falling, not increasing. We are a platform not a country.
@John Lynch: this is true but if the government could bring back some of these Airbnb properties back into the rental market it would help. Not fix but help with the shortage.
Heavier brown envelopes required lads
So basically airb&b is a tax haven for landlords who don’t wish to pay taxes, it’s no wonder there are no long term rentals available in Ireland
@Helena O’Carroll: No AirBnB properties must be registered for tax.
Overall, if someone can get the same income from AirBnBn lets as from long-term rental – they will take AirBnB. Because long term letting has the reputation of tenants who won’t pay and won’t leave. There are thousands of empty houses because owners are afraid to rent them.
Government is an incompetent meddler, making a bad situation worse in the rental sector. The real problem is that they can’t control the influx, or provide for it.
@Helena O’Carroll: you must declare any rental income whether its from a single tenant or via airbnb rentals. No escape from the tax man as always.
have your say