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TWO-THIRDS OF all Airbnb listings in Ireland are for entire properties, according to new research by the Economic and Social Research Institute.
The research examined short-term let usage across the country in the month of September in the years 2019, 2022 and 2023. It was funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
The report is a rare insight into the scale of Airbnbs in Ireland, finding that despite an increase in the number of short-term lets listed since 2019, it is not the “root cause” of the current shortage of rental properties across the country.
It comes after the Government last week approved the next steps in drafting new legislation for a long-promised register of short-term letting properties, which is due to come into effect by May 2026.
The ESRI research found that in September 2023, there were 28,169 Airbnb listings in Ireland, up from 24,915 the previous year. Of those, 18,638 were for entire properties, while a further 9,531 were private room listings.
It found that entire property listings are highly concentrated in specific local areas. Dublin city had the most listings, with 3,408 entire properties and 2,783 private rooms.
High concentrations are also found in many western coastal areas, including Kerry (2,118), Donegal (1,869), Cork County (1,482) and Galway County (1,266), Clare (1,101) and Mayo (1,096).
A number of Kerry councillors spoke to The Journal earlier this month about the impacts of the proposed register might have on tourism and on the area.
Between 2019 and 2023, the proportion of total listings that were for entire properties increased from 56.4% to 66.2%. The numbers of entire property listings increased in all areas except Dublin City, Cork City and Galway City over this period.
The ESRI said that establishing a detailed and comprehensive register covering all short-term let activity across Ireland “is a crucial first step towards informed policymaking”.
“The register is needed to provide timely and detailed information for the sector which can be used in conjunction with PRS data to monitor activity, changes in patterns and particular pressures in local areas.”
The Government-promised register is aimed at enforcing a requirement for property owners to obtain change of use planning permission to let out entire houses and apartments on platforms such as Airbnb when they are located in rent pressure zones.
The new legislation, which was due to come into effect in September 2022, will ban planning permissions for short-term lets, such as Airbnb, in towns of more than 10,000 people.
Anyone letting a property, or bedrooms in a home, for 21 nights or less will have to register with Fáilte Ireland.
The Government has suggested the register could take 12,000 properties out of the tourism market and back into use as homes for long-term rental.
The ESRI research found that there was at least one Airbnb for every ten private rental properties in 38 out of the 166 local electoral areas in Ireland – meaning the Airbnb market is at least 10% of the size of the private rental sector market.
However, it found that despite certain areas having high numbers of Airbnb listings relative to properties for rent, there was no evidence linking increases in short-term let activity and falls in new rental tenancy registrations between 2019 and 2023.
“This does not mean short-term let activity has not had a detrimental impact on the private rental sector in specific local markets. It does, however, suggest short-term let activity is not the primary cause of falling new rental commencements or the lack of available rental accommodation nationwide,” it states.
The research also found a “very strong” correlation between current Airbnb listings and properties in non-urban tourist hotspots that were recorded as holiday homes in the 2016 Census, with a lower correlation in urban areas.
“This indicates that many short-term let properties, especially those in non-urban areas, might not be part of the private rental sector in the absence of Airbnb,” the report states.
The report also highlights the attractiveness of short-term lets in terms of price. On average, properties in coastal areas need to be let for only 6 to 8 days per month – or 8 to 10 days per month in Dublin City – to match the amount of money that would be earned in the private rental sector.
It found that 85% of Airbnb hosts have just one property listing. However, these hosts only accounted for 59.6% of all listings.
The ESRI said it’s hard to get a clear picture of how many multi-property hosts there are due to the presence of third-party tourist letting agencies on the platform that manage the properties, rather than necessarily multi-property owners.
While new hosts are continuing to join Airbnb, they make up a small share of entire property listings overall. Nationally, 5.6% of hosts first registered with Airbnb in 2023.
In terms of regulations, the ESRI found that voluntary registration and change of use planning permission requirements for short-term lets in Rent Pressure Zones “appear largely ineffective”.
There were 9,142 Airbnb listings for entire properties in Rent Pressure Zones in September 2023, but only 91 short-term let change of use planning applications were received for the year.
The report said the current registration system and regulatory approach need reform, with different policy responses likely to be needed in urban areas with large rental markets compared to coastal towns with smaller rental sectors.
Three broad types of short-term let regulation have typically been introduced abroad: day caps restricting the total number of days per year a property can be let, partial or outright bans, and data sharing with tax authorities to identify usage and enforce tax obligations.
The report states that internationally, enforced regulations have resulted in a fall in short-term let listings and some switching back into the longer-term private rental sector, but the evidence of impacts on private rental prices is more mixed.
“Only the stricter forms of regulation appear to lead to a decrease in long-term housing market prices,” it states, adding that a moderation in prices is less likely where there is a mismatch in scale between potential switchers and the overall excess demand relative to supply.
“This suggests in the Irish case we may not expect a movement of properties from the STL sector to the PRS to lead to any significant impact on prices in the PRS, although some localised effects may occur.”
It said that while international work has typically focused on urban areas, short-term let activity “is more than just an urban phenomenon in Ireland”.
“Finding an appropriate balance between the need for tourist accommodation and the income these platforms provide locals in areas where the local economy is highly reliant on tourism, versus the need for rental housing for locals is crucial for Ireland.”
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