The Irish Mail on Sunday

An Taisce chief develops seven Airbnb-style apartments in listed building

Ian Lumley is a regular challenger-in-chief to developmen­t, so what is he doing to one of our f inest buildings?

- By Claire Scott news@mailonsund­ay.ie

AN TAISCE’S heritage officer Ian Lumley is developing a protected building on the oldest Georgian Street in Dublin, turning it into seven two-bedroom apartments for short-term lease letting.

The plans have been criticised by housing campaigner­s, though An Taisce – the charity that aims to ‘preserve and protect Ireland’s natural built heritage’ – has taken a more nuanced approach.

Mr Lumley is the co-owner of No. 3 Henrietta Street, Dublin 1, and he and building contractor Pat Wiggleswor­th are set to restore the 1750s building – and put in ‘pods’, living quarters set into the huge rooms to allow ‘modern living’.

They are expected to be ready by Christmas and the two developers have not yet decided how they will lease them. But Mr Wiggleswor­th said: ‘The AirBnB platform is ideal for this. The Landmark Trust platform is ideal, it’s similar to the National Trust platform in the UK. They’re all open to talk to.’

On rent he said: ‘I couldn’t put a figure on it but if you’re staying in Dublin in the Gresham, which we would consider this [3 Henrietta Street], at the top end, a four or five star establishm­ent there. I don’t know what you’d be paying perhaps four or five hundred a night?’

Cost per night will vary as the apartments are different sizes.

If all seven apartments were let for just €200 a night, at only 50% capacity, they would generate as much as €250,000 a year either through Landmark or AirBnB.

Mr Lumley said they are a ‘long way away’ from deciding what platform to use. He said: ‘It’s a very significan­t investment here so return has to be looked at. There is tax relief but it’s capped, it’s welcome but it goes nowhere towards the scale of a project like this. We’ll be looking at the options. We want to find a use that respects the building at the same time.’

Research from Daft.ie, released on Wednesday, shows less than half of listed rental properties in Dublin are available to long-term tenants. And the chief executive of the housing organisati­on, Threshold, John-Mark McCafferty said: ‘While there is a place for short-term lets in the tourist market, it’s very worrying for a city that has a housing crisis that such a high percentage of properties are essentiall­y off limits to long-term tenants.

Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin said: ‘In most parts of the country shortterm letting isn’t a problem but in certain parts of Dublin it is, particular­ly in Dublin 1, 2, 7 and 8.’ This is because these are traditiona­lly lowcost rent areas for people coming out of emergency accommodat­ion or starting out on the private rental sector, getting a foot on the ladder.

Inner City Helping Homeless founder Anthony Flynn called for stringent AirBnB regulation­s.

The MoS asked An Taisce how it would feel if the property was used for AirBnB, the spokesman said: ‘If that’s what makes sense in this instance, maybe, but it’s not something we would particular­ly support because of the problems in the wider area of people using AirBnB for long-term rental and the problems that’s causing the housing market.’ A spokesman said: ‘It may be a little bit conflictin­g, yeah.’

Mr Lumley said this means ‘more people get to appreciate the place’.

 ??  ?? pod developers: Pat Wiggleswor­th and Ian Lumley
pod developers: Pat Wiggleswor­th and Ian Lumley

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