Poll: Should there be a cap on how often Dublin homes can be rented out on Airbnb?
Apartments and houses in London can only be made available for 90 days per year.
YESTERDAY, FORA REPORTED that 12% of the houses and apartments in Dublin that are up for rent on Airbnb are not lived in by their owners.
That means that roughly 730 of the capital’s 6,100 hosts do not permanently live in the properties they rent out to tourists, even though a ruling by An Bord Pleanála effectively declared it illegal to operate a property purely for Airbnb purposes without planning permission.
The figures come as lawmakers consider home-sharing regulations amid the worsening housing crisis.
A government working group is currently reviewing whether rules need to be drawn up to curb Airbnb’s impact on the Irish residential property market.
Critics believe that many vacant properties listed on the site would otherwise be available to ease the shortage of long-term accommodation in the capital.
A number of cities around the world have already clamped down on the use of Airbnb. In London, for example, the home-sharing site recently moved to cap rentals at three months per year in response to hosts flouting planning regulations.
Airbnb maintains that it “provides much-needed capacity” for tourists visiting Dublin, where hotels are practically full. It also says that more than half of Airbnb hosts in Ireland depend on the extra income earned through the site to make ends meet.
Right now, Airbnb does not intend to introduce such a cap in Dublin – but it could change its tune once the government working group reports back in June.
With that in mind, we’re asking Fora readers this week: Should there be a cap on how often Dublin homes can be rented out on Airbnb?
