The government’s inaction on regulating short-term rentals is “difficult to comprehend” given the scale of the housing crisis, the Social Democrats have said.
In September there were 10,975 people in emergency accommodation and TD Cian O’Callaghan said the crisis was causing “massive distress” even to those with a roof over their heads.
The Irish Independent reports that the government has delayed the introduction of a register for short-term rentals like Airbnb for another five months – which the Social Democrats say should have been “relatively simple”.
“It’s very hard to understand how some of the easiest things to do on the government’s list haven’t been done yet,” Mr O’Callaghan said. The Pat Kenny Show.
Many landlords prefer short-term rentals to long-term leases because they can charge much higher prices, especially during tourist season.
However, housing campaigners say the proliferation of short-term rentals in many areas has deprived residents of homes they would otherwise live in.
“If you don’t regulate and limit the number of short-term rentals in the area, it becomes a dominant form of supply and displaces others,” Mr O’Callaghan said.
“There is a real problem, particularly in the more touristy parts of the country… where new housing estates have been built to meet local housing needs and if you go now the whole housing estate is now holiday homes.”
On census night in 2022, there were 33,000 people temporarily unoccupied and Mr O’Callaghan believes the government should raise the tax on vacant homes.
“Every house has a huge public investment in terms of infrastructure – water infrastructure, transport, roads, amenities. So having an empty house with all that public investment, leaving it empty for no reason valid, it actually comes at a huge cost.
Main image: Holiday homes on the west Atlantic coast of Ireland. Photo by: Alamy.com
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