Keith Swanick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The growth of short-term lettings such as Airbnb across the globe has presented a set of serious challenges for regulators who are catching up. The State has an important role to play in ensuring proper planning is fully adhered to and the housing market protected. Fianna Fáil is in favour of the 90 night limit put forward by the report. This will not discourage homesharing but will prevent the loss of homes from long-term renting into professional short-term letting. Preliminary research conducted by Dublin City Council in March 2017 on the extent of Airbnb activity in Dublin suggests that a total of 6,729 listings existed on Airbnb for all of Dublin, with 5,377 listings located within the Dublin City Council area at that time. Of these, 50% were listings for entire houses or apartments only. The committee also heard evidence that there are currently more short-term rental properties available in the Dublin 1 area than there are traditional rental units, and that at least 30 former rented units have been lost in the past 18 months as a result of changing use for the purposes of short-term lets.

Just this morning I checked Airbnb for availability tomorrow night. I did not pick tonight as I am sure there will be an extra burden on all hotels and rentals as a result of the Ireland-Denmark game. For tomorrow, there were 306 entire apartments or homes available to choose from in the Dublin city centre area. That was only 10% of the entire listing. Based on that, over 2,000 have been booked already for tomorrow night. Some 243 hosts had more than one property and these 243 hosts accounted for 913 properties between them. This highlights how 15% of hosts possessed 39% of entire home listings on the Airbnb platform on that given date. There were 1,103 entire homes booked for more than 80 nights in all Dublin during 2016. In Dublin, a typical host on Airbnb earned €5,000 and hosted for 51 nights in 2016.

Outside Dublin, there were 960 Airbnb hosts in Cork in one year. In the period from September 2015 to August 2016, earnings for a typical host in the south-west region, taking in Cork and Kerry, were €3,900. On October 23 the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government issued a circular stating that planning permissions for short-term lets should be refused if there was a short-term let of over 60 days. The guidance was unclear over who had to apply for permission and on what grounds it would be granted or refused. It also outlines a refusal of permission for stays of more than five nights or for more than four people, which would rule out families and week long holidays. This was met with bewilderment and confusion by stakeholders. Why has 60 nights been selected? What is the basis for just four people? The guidance is contradictory and confusing and risks damaging the sector without actually properly regulating it.

The Department convened a short-term letting task force which is due to issue recommendations by the end of 2017. In response to Dáil questions last month the Minister, Deputy Murphy, stated the planning circular gives guidance on current planning laws but the task force recommendations will set out the basis for a new regulatory framework. I cannot understand how we can make it so difficult. There are plenty of international examples out there. In San Francisco, hosts have to register with the authorities and if Airbnb advertises an unregistered property, it can be fined $1,000 a day for each listing. In Berlin, people who let more than 50% of their apartment on a short-term basis without a permit risk a fine of €100,000 and London has imposed a 90 night limit per year on short-term lets.

This Government loves a good task force, review, report, or expert group. It loves kicking issues down the road so as not to deal with them, but this is not complex. Despite the Taoiseach’s statement at the weekend, we are all in agreement that we have a homelessness crisis and that any measures to address it should be taken. There can be no doubt that the lack of long-term rentals is directly feeding into the homelessness emergency. The Government’s confused circular from last month needs to be replaced with clear regulation around the 90 night limit.