Airbnb listings now outstrip home rentals by 18 to one
AIRBNB has 18 times more properties available as short-term lets than Ireland’s largest property site has long-term rental listings.
As of yesterday, 15,657 homes and apartments were listed on Airbnb in Ireland, according to data from Inside Airbnb, while only 856 properties were available to rent on Daft.ie.
In some areas there are 50 times more Airbnbs available than rental properties, with only 35 properties to rent on Daft.ie in Co. Kerry but almost 2,000 Airbnb listings in the popular holiday spot.
In the capital, where the rental crisis is particularly acute, there are seven times more Airbnb homes available than rental properties.
Airbnb said that many of the homes listed on Inside Airbnb are inactive but there are still well over 6,000 that have been booked in the past six months or are ‘frequently booked’ – let out for more than 60 days a year.
The latest Daft.ie report showed that the number of properties available to rent nationwide at the beginning of May was down by 77% year-on-year, an ‘unprecedented’ decline according to study author Ronan Lyons.
Many blame the disproportionate number of short-term lets on a lack of regulation. Under existing rules, homeowners in rent pressure zones who want to shortterm let their home for over 90 days a year, or a second property for any length of time, must apply to their local authority for change of use planning permission.
Even if you are renting out your property for fewer than 90 days you still need to apply for an exemption, Sinn Féin housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin emphasised yesterday on RTÉ’s Today With Claire Byrne.
He was talking about his proposed legislation which would require estate agents and hosting platforms to check if property owners had the correct documents before advertising their properties on their websites.
It would also allow local authorities to issue spot fines to those who advertise non-compliant properties.
Airbnb responded that it has a ‘long history of supporting calls for better regulation in Ireland’ and has promoted existing rules to hosts to boost compliance.
The Bill was introduced to the Dáil in its first stage yesterday. Mr Ó Broin told the Mail: ‘I do think there is a desire among parties to do something about this.’
Social Democrats housing spokesman Cian O’Callaghan said: ‘Local authorities are underresourced to do the enforcing themselves.
‘That’s a hugely complex process for them to try and individually investigate complaints, whereas if the onus was on the platform there would be a simple requirement that you must upload that planning compliance document when you upload the details of the property.’
Chief executive of housing charity Threshold, John-Mark McCafferty, argued that there is a ‘moral obligation on short-let platforms to ensure that properties have the necessary planning permission before they’re allowed to advertise on the short-let platforms’.
‘A desire to do something’