Few homes will go to rental sector in Cork if Airbnbs are restricted

An ERSI report on short-term let usage across Ireland has cast doubts that a large percentage of homes will be returned to the Cork rental sector if Airbnbs are restricted.

Research completed on behalf of the Department of Housing found that Airbnb’s entire property listings are highly concentrated in specific local areas, which often do not have a large private rental sector (PRS) anyway.

High concentrations of short term lets (STLs) were found in tourist hotspots including West Cork and in inner city Dublin and Galway, with very low levels in other urban centres such as Cork city.

Bantry-West Cork had the sixth highest amount of STLs per local electoral area at 545, while the five local areas of Cork city had a combined listing count of just 174.

The report notes: “The price that can be charged and potential revenue earned are likely to be important factors for hosts when deciding to list their properties on STL platforms,” showing that Airbnb nightly rents were three times higher than PRS nightly rents in the city and four times as high in West Cork.

The authors concluded: “STL activity may exacerbate the situation in specific local areas, but it does not appear to be the root cause of the observed falls in available PRS accommodation.

“We document a strong correlation between current Airbnb listings and previously recorded holiday homes in non-urban areas. This suggests many of these STL properties would not be expected to be found in the PRS even in the absence of Airbnb.

“Any restriction on STL activity may therefore not have the desired effect of greatly increasing PRS supply in these areas.”

They did note that in urban areas with large rental markets, the degree of crossover between the STL and PRS sectors is likely to be higher, but given the relatively small amount of Airbnbs in Cork city, the effect is likely to be minimal there also.

An Airbnb spokesperson told The Echo: “This independent report shows Airbnb is not the cause of Ireland’s housing challenges.

“As the Government considers new rules on STLs, it’s important that regulation doesn’t unnecessarily risk jobs and livelihoods, especially when many of these properties will never return to the long term rental market.”

The spokesperson said Airbnb has long called for Ireland to introduce “proportional short-term letting rules” and will “continue to work with the Government as it considers new regulation”.