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Up to 70 percent of suspicious Airbnb-style vacation rentals in Dublin City have returned to the full-time rental market since the start of the pandemic, according to new figures from Dublin City Council.
About 900 properties in the city had been investigated by the city council for alleged violations of legislation governing the use of tourist housing or other short-term rentals.
Since July last year, property owners in rental pressure zones must obtain a zoning permit to use their homes for short-term rentals for more than three months of the year.
However, although landlords can apply for a permit, it is the policy of the city council to refuse it to avoid the loss of permanent rental accommodation in the city.
Travel restrictions
Due to travel restrictions associated with the pandemic, the number of complaints made to the council about short-term rentals had decreased, council planner Jonathan Fallon said. This allowed the unit to focus on the 900 properties identified.
“We wrote to all the owners and all the parties involved in those properties and asked what their intention was in the short, medium and long term regarding the use of the properties in question,” said Fallon.
“We received a great response to those letters. A large number of them, between 60 and 70 percent, said they have returned to long-term use. “
Property owners were required to provide the council with lease agreements with their new residents, to confirm that they are operating as traditional owners.
Judicial action
“The copies of the leases we have show [the owners] It seems to have gone through a period of three or six months in general to see where the market would go, but many of them have also switched to 12-month leases, ”said Fallon.
The city council has taken legal action in relation to four properties, where the owners did not comply with the compliance notices that ordered them to stop operating short-term rentals. The owners face penalties of up to 5,000 euros or six months in prison, or both, if convicted.
The council’s head of housing, Brendan Kenny, said in July that the council had secured several Airbnb permits for homeless families.
Fallon said the unit was continuing to investigate potentially illegal short-term rental use. “We continue to crawl the various websites and randomly select places where we think the rental may still be happening in various locations in the city center and we are also proactively pursuing those people.”
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