‘This is within the Government’s gift to solve’ says CEO

Cork has the second highest number of hosts who have at least two full properties being advertised for short-term letting, new figures have revealed.

As the tourism season kicked off over St Patrick’s weekend, national housing charity Threshold called for immediate Government action following the release of figures revealing the true scale of homes being rented as short-term lets.

The figures show there are now over 20,000 entire homes advertised as short-term lets across Ireland, compared to 2,300 homes available nationwide in the private rental market. Of these, 7,961 homes are being let by hosts with at least two properties.

This compares to recent figures from Daft.ie which showed there were less than 2,300 homes advertised to privately rent nationwide.

In addition, in 2024 there were only 167 requests for “change of use” planning permission to local authorities in the 26 counties combined which is legally required for properties operated as short-term lets of more than 90 days a year.

Dublin has the highest number of hosts who have at least two full properties for short-term lets with 856 hosts advertising 2,287 properties. Cork is the second highest county where this is the case, with 312 hosts advertising 616 properties.

The figures were analysed from watchdog website Inside Airbnb. Despite a well-documented supply crisis in Ireland’s long-term housing market, the Government is not tackling short-term lets as a priority, according to Threshold.

Threshold CEO, John-Mark McCafferty, said: “The bottom line here is that there could be many homes brought back to the long-term market. Existing planning regulations are not enforced and short-term let regulations are not yet passed into law.

“This is resulting in thousands of homes being advertised for short-term lets in this lucrative market, while the housing and rental crisis escalates nationwide. This is within the Government’s gift to solve.”

Mr McCafferty added: “The Government claim housing is the number one issue and directly under their noses is a way in which to address that, and free up some of the huge pressure in the housing market, yet they keep kicking this issue down the road. We need action now to address this important issue.”