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WITH RENTS IN Dublin now averaging €500 above the boomtime figure, and just 3,070 properties available to rent across the country at the beginning of this month, pressure is mounting on Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy to take drastic action.
It’s been suggested that one quick-fire way to get rental stock back to a functioning level is to encourage or force landlords using AirBnb to get back into the normal rental market.
With AirBnb revealing this week that 640,000 guests will use the service in Ireland over the summer, Labour Senator Kevin Humphreys has insisted now is the time to follow in Berlin’s footsteps and bring in strict controls on short-term lets.
Such measures in the German capital brought 2,500 long-term rentals back onto the market over the course of a year, he said.
This isn’t a new idea. In fact, ever since Ireland’s homeless and housing crisis hit the headlines, there have been calls to deal with the lack of regulation of short-term lets.
It now looks like the minister will move to introduce regulations like so many other cities around the world, with suggestions a 60-day limit could be imposed on short-term rentals in Dublin. That means landlords could only earn money from guests sought out through websites like AirBnb for two months of the year.
In a letter to Sinn Féin’s Housing spokesperson, the minister confirms that proposals for a new licensing scheme will be brought to Cabinet for approval during September, “which should provide further clarity on the next steps and timeline to progress the matter in facilitating a more managed approach to short-term tourist lettings around the country”.
It adds that the new rules will also recognise the role of short-time lettings in the provision of tourist accommodation and reflecting the significant economic value generated by the sector.
Airbnb has previously said it welcomes talks on clear home sharing rules for Irish hosts. Earlier this summer and after almost two years of discussions, the company expressed concerns over the slow pace at which home sharing rules in Ireland are being developed.
The company said it has not seen any details of the proposals in Ireland.
On the proposed new regulations, a spokesperson for Airbnb told TheJournal.ie said:
We want to be regulated and have long-welcomed talks on clear home sharing rules. As the travel industry grows, home sharing ensures local families benefit from visitors to Ireland – not just hotel chains – and that tourism euros stay in local communities. We look forward to seeing the details of these proposals and to continue working with the government to support Irish people-powered-tourism.
Lobbying power
But, why has the government been slow to act?
Lobbying, could be one answer.
Since 2016, the Lobbying Register lists 49 instances in which AirBnb lobbied officials.
One of the first meetings took place at Airbnb’s European headquarters on 21 January 2016 in which Airbnb executives met with Minister for Tourism Shane Ross, as well as his special adviser and the Assistant Secretary General of the department.
The meeting was to discuss “measures [which] should be pursued to ensure Airbnb’s continued growth in Ireland, how it can be used as a solution to issues of capacity and spread of tourism across all parts of Ireland”, according to the lobbying return.
At the opening of their new offices, the company also lobbied Mary Mitchell O’Connor, the Minister at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the time about Airbnb as a business and the “positive impacts home sharing is creating in Ireland”.
Blueline Consulting, acting on behalf of its client AirBnb, are listed as lobbying Dublin City Council in 2017 on the “current data on the impact of home-sharing in Dublin City” with a discussion taking place on Airbnb’s work internationally with municipal bodies to ensure responsible hosting.
In the same year, the company met with ministers and opposition TDs to discuss “ short-term lettings and home sharing in Ireland, it’s positive impact as well as ongoing Airbnb initiatives”.
Meetings were held with Junior Housing Minister Damien English, Deputy Chief Executive of Dublin City Council Brendan Kenny, Fianna Fáil’s Housing spokesperson at the time, Barry Cowen, TD Pat Casey, and Eoghan O’Brien, Councillor for Fingal County Council.
This year, the company also emailed its Insights report to the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, and Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy, among many other TDs and ministers.
Calls for meetings with Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy
Q4PR, acting on behalf of its client AirBnb, called Minister Murphy to request a meeting be set up with AirBnb officials. This meeting did not end up taking place.
The PR company also spoke with the minister’s special adviser, Jack O’Donnell, to request a meeting with him. This meeting subsequently took place directly between Airbnb and Jack O’Donnell.
Sensing that the writing is on the wall in terms of some sort of regulation coming down the line for the industry, AirBnb held meetings with a number of ministers, councillors and Murphy’s special adviser this year.
The meetings were to discuss “the analysis and background of home sharing in Ireland and the need for a fair approach to the industry”.
Attendees included Minister Ciaran Cannon, Minister Pat Breen, Minister Brendan Griffin, Senator Kevin Humpreys, Fine Gael TDs Maria Bailey and Noel Rock, as well as Fianna Fáil’s Robert Troy. The company also met with Cllr Anne Feeney, Cllr Deirdre Heney, Cllr Denise Brophy, and finally, Minister Murphy’s special adviser Jack O’Donnell.
On that issue of lobbying, Airbnb said it wouldn’t have anything to add beyond what the lobby return itself outlines.
Concerns about AirBnb
As far back as 2014, there have been concerns about AirBnb and short-term lets impacting on the normal rental sector.
That year there were reports in the US that tenants were being evicted so landlords could use AirBnb. This was the same year the company announced that it was doubling its workforce in at their European HQ in Dublin.
As AirBnb became more popular, the Revenue Commissioners moved to clarify Ireland’s ‘Rent-a-Room’ tax relief to ensure that hosts on rental sites like Airbnb were officially liable for tax on that income.
Then in 2016, in one of the most high-profile cases, Dublin City Council ruled an apartment in Temple Bar listed on the site was not exempt from the requirement to get planning permission because of the change of use.
It forced the then-Housing Minister Simon Coveney to state that his department would look into clarifying guidelines on when a rental property becomes a commercial one.
The following year, with the rental crisis growing, the minister set up a working group to review if new regulations should be introduced for short-term letting websites.
When Eoghan Murphy took over as housing minister, he issued a circular to local authorities stating that apartments situated in rent pressure zones are not appropriate for Airbnb use. He also received the working group’s report, though it has yet to be published.
Earlier this year, John-Mark McCafferty, CEO of national housing charity Threshold, told TheJournal.ie that, during a time of “historically low supply” in the private rental sector, “Airbnb is taking up a share of units that would otherwise” be in the private market.
Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin, meanwhile, said there’s a “real frustration” with government’s lack of action on the issue, despite it being flagged for at least two years now.
With AirBnb latest report showing the business is thriving, juxtaposed with this week’s Daft.ie report that shows the rental sector is continuing to spiral out of the control, the minister might see it as a ‘win-win’ move to be seen as the man that took on AirBnb.
Meanwhile, Senator Humphreys has called for Airbnb to release the number of Irish properties listed on their website.
“If we want to tackle the negative impact short-term rentals are having on home availability, we need to know the scale of their use.”
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AirBnB currently accounting for about 1% of the rental market. Absolutely red herring.
@Stuart:
1 % haha. This town has 150 places on AirBnB and 3 available for long term rent.
@Zossima: how many already rented in short or long term?
@Stuart: any details of your stats
@Zossima: we don’t know which town you are referring to but any stat that refers to how many are available at a given time can’t be used to negate a stat which says that AirBnB properties are 1% of the rental market. You’re comparing apples and oranges.
As someone who travels quite a bit. I have used Airbnb many times in other cities around the world. Without it I would’nt have been able to travel. It’s saved me thousands not having to pay for expensive hotel prices. If we loose Airbnb’s in Ireland, It will have a big impact on tourism. I don’t believe it’s right for the government to dictate to private property owners, what they can or can’t do with their own property. Some people will prefer the security of a long term rental, But If you are willing to put a bit of work in, you can make allot more from a series of short-term Airbnb lets.
@Stipe Miocic: yep totally I know a house sleeps 7 actually and used to be around €800 a month I think here in Donegal. It’s on Air B&B now for €180 a night mid week and €210 a night weekends and their busy especially in summer with large families staying it’s a bargain compared to them staying in a hotel and having to eat out all the time. Tax is 50% on the rental income though.
@Stipe Miocic: people’s right to a home is more important that your right to affordable holidays
@Chris Crockford: yes that’s true but it’s not the publics job to provide those homes. How many social houses have been built in the last decade or even the decade before that? Not nearly enough, the government put that burden on private developers and when they didn’t want to provide units they were allowed buy their way out via part v, that money was then squandered by consecutive inept governments instead of providing the social housing they were responsible for. So now they again want average joe to come to the rescue, despite making long term “landloarding” thoroughly unattractive.
@Emachine: not the publics job to provide this housing? Where do you think social housing and HAP comes from???
@Jason Burns: public, as in the average joe on the street, however the state has a responsibility though.
@Stipe Miocic: Completely agree with you. I have just come back from 2 weeks travelling around Europe with my family staying in Airbnb homes. Much cheaper and more comfortable than staying in hotels or B&Bs. Wouldn’t have been able to afford it otherwise. Also as I have coeliac disease it was great to have access to a full kitchen in each place we stayed. Airbnbs are great for tourism. We have stayed in towns and villages (also in Ireland) that we would never have visited and spent money locally there.
@Jason Burns: hilarious, but the article relates to the state telling individuals what they must do with their property, namely provide it to those in need of long term accommodation rather than do what is most lucrative for themselves in order to compensate for the lack of forward thinking or our dear leaders. Housing is the responsibility of the people through the government not the individual that has worked to better their lot in life.
@Stipe Miocic: When you bought your house you got a special rate on your mortgage, a lower property tax rate and FAR less in terms of complying with codes pertaining to handicapped use and fire systems. Sorry but a house is NOT a hotel and the government does have a right to determine how you use your house if it is put to commercial use.
There are too many TD’s landlords for any action to be taken. They’re not going to do anything to harm themselves or their cronies.
@Declan Moran: You’re looking at it the wrong way. If there was a shortage of Taxis that meant that Taxis fares went up and it was near impossible to get a taxis when you needed one, would the solution to that be to punish taxis owners- tax them more, put caps on the price of taxis, load more costly regulations on them, allow non payment of fares with no recourse etc? or would the solution be to incentivise more people to become taxi drivers? Its the same thing with housing. Its basic economics.
Ammm if your run a business from your home, say a b&b, then you pay taxes. So should people renting their premises on air b&b etc not have to apply for a business license?
@Francis Glynn: you have to pay taxes on Airbnb earnings, or any income. Airbnb also pay tax on its (fairly extortionate) service charge, so there is a record of the tax due on every property rented available to revenue. It’s not like Airbnb work cash in hand.
@Francis Glynn: is a business licence too much? Seems to be just red tape. Only thing I’d argue for is insurance for aibnbsers
@Gulliver Foyle: yes their service charge is high I think it’s around 20%
@Jonathan Power: if you’re a guest, sure.. for a host the service fee is more like 3%… not bad, considering booking.com will charge you 14% for the same thing as a host. (i was lookin’ into this recently, but decided against hosting).
Government won’t get into the business of building homes with tax money, free market all that… But want to get into the business of telling home owners what they can and can’t do with their property that they have bought.
Build more affordable housing, stop vulture funds from snapping up 6-8 properties and allowing them to be rented out at 600-800e a month including bills
If people own a property fairly and squarely they should be allowed to do with it what they wish. Whatever happened to property rights? The Gov just need to butt out, they only ever make things worse. The issue is a supply problem, but the Gov has done and is doing everything it can to prevent supply meeting demand – rent caps, heaping taxes and regulations on landlords, builders and investors, onerous planning process, preventing the banks from repossessing homes in default resulting in overly risk adverse banks etc. They no doubt have good intentions, but good intentions never did anyone any good. They’re actively making the problem worse.
Money talks.
@nelly: not really relevant. If you look at the returns, you’ll find out that they are very straightforward. If you think a TD isn’t acting in our best interest it’s simple we just don’t vote for that same person.
@nelly:
Housing
Health
Water.
Fianna Gael do not work in the interests of the Irish people. They actively work against them.
#reality
@Jim Ni Suilleabhain: Ah Jim.
@Shawn O’Ceallaghan: If TDs are acting in their own interest, please explain why tax on rental income is extortionately high
@Paul Fahey: Housing and the like are complex things with lots of moving parts. Its much easier to pick out a group and blame them for everything – regardless of the facts – than to find viable solutions. The problem is that know-nothing politicians listen to that kind of populist non-sense and end up making policies that make things worse – hurting the people they were trying to help in the process.
the rental crisis has nothing to do with airbnb, why cant they just provide more apartment blocks?
Not a hope any action will be taken,,,,,,
Targeting Airbnb will not solve the problem. Allowing vulture funds to buy up swathes of land in the city centre without any condition that apartments be built has lead to a tonne of office space and f all apartments. The FF and FG governments through pursuing this avenue of “hope” through the recession have caused the crisis and will rightly pay in the next election.
@Conor Boden: They would build apartments if it were financially viable to do so. But the regulations and planning process make it so costly to build apartments that no one is willing to bother. height restrictions, underground parking, floor spaces requirement, the requirement for dual aspect etc make it all so costly.
@Damon16: Any apartments that were planned were set back to the planning stage when the minimum standards changed. Twice. This means that very few apartments were built for approx 3 years. All because the Government was trying to make it less costly to build apartments and this despite the fact that they could have simply removed the €40K per unit.
It would serve us better if we tackled the volume of land hoarding currently going on. There is something perverse about a government telling an individual what they can and can’t do with their own property, while allowing a tiny minority of people sit on vast amounts of zoned land.
The government are to blame for pushing landlords into the arms of short term letting. The tax implications are ridiculous, where people were paying tax on a loss making property, add to that the risk of getting a bad tenant who wrecks your property or won’t pay rent or both and the difficulty in evicting such people, I wouldn’t touch the private rental sector with a barge pole.
People’s right to housing is more important than your right to travel.
@Chris Crockford: really? You might want to think that through Chris.
@Chris Crockford: you are right. That’s why people should have a right to squat your house when you are not using it.
It is their right after all!
How many homeless families are living in hotels, can we have the exact number for that? I will sound cruel here, but they are also causing problems, it’s one of the reasons why hotels are fully booked out, AirBnB might be the only choice to find somewhere to stay on a holiday
The problem is land Banking not air BnB. When I was a kid 80% of the local houseing was lived in by locals. The rest was rental and holiday lets. Now it closer to 70% renting now days. We always had a housing problem but those days there were huge amount of council houseing been built.
Anything to avoid dealing with the real issues of affordable housing, planning corruption, lack of high rise, Landlords being kept out of business following btl repossession by predatory lenders who have no interest in Irelands long term economy etc. We are becoming more like a feudal corrupt society. Airbnb is a wonderful tourist aid that no doubt creates affordable holidays and thus huge tourism revenue. If we want proper long term rental conditions we need to correct all these issues.
Reason I left Dublin and now live in Berlin.
@Zossima: the majority of those are rooms in people’s houses or appartments not landlord owned apartments.
If is a red herring and they need to seperate out the home sharing from the smaller number of commercial lettings.
Secondly the problem is a lack of social housing and affordable housing and this is not due to a lack of funds available; it is due to EU fiscal rules on spending imposed since 2012 . Any and all spending must be in direct proportion to a percentage of growth. That means money set aside by the government and county counculs for housing cannot be and is nog being spent on housing unless it cuts into spending on other areas like health, infastructure, public services etc. .
The only way around it is to raise capital independently such as housing bonds, which is what they do in the UK.
Governments approach Blame someone else.
All talk no action
@Martin Sinnott: All action, no thought
They should introduce a 2-tier system. Tier 1 you’re allowed to charge whatever you want whenever and Super flexi contracts, but at 50% tax. In Tier 2 goverment controls pretty much everything, rent is capped at 1500 max based on size home, area etc. but tax is only around 5%. So you can choose what you want, just need to register your rental under 1 of these. Expectation is that upper market property would be let out under tier 1 and the rest under tier 2. Just an idea…
Senator Humphrey has requested to Airbnb to release data on the number of listings. He is more likely to be able to fly across the Irish sea by flapping his hands.
AirBnB was originally for people to play host to visitors by renting out “SPARE BEDROOMS”. Today, what we have instead is a situation whereby private individuals with NO commercial tax liability are running ” UNMANNED HOTELS” that serves NO WIDER economic benefit. AirBnB should be STOPPED!
How about the likes of NAMA? Dont they get any blame in this? I mean they do have thousands of properties which are literally locked up to drive up the price.
No fake outrage here?
Senator Humphreys has asked Airbnb to release data on listings. He may as well try to fly across the Irish sea by flapping his hands.
The more involvement the government has in housing, the lower the quality, the higher price.
@Michael Herron: That’s actually untrue and I doubt you have a verifiable and dependable research or stats to back such claims.
have your say