'Almost impossible' to find anywhere to rent in Cork city

There are nearly twice as many properties on Airbnb for short-term letting in Cork city as long-term rental properties on daft.ie.

That is according to Social Democrats councillor Niamh O’Connor, who said that, from the end of the month, the sector will be “entirely unregulated”.

This week, Cork City Council revealed that it had issued 147 warning letters to suspected short-term-letting landlords, operating without planning permission in the last five years.

Niall Ó Donnabháin, the council’s director of planning and integrated development, told Monday’s city council meeting that short-term letting is defined in current legislation as a material change of use that may, in certain circumstances, require planning permission. 

He provided figures showing that, from 2019 to 2025, the council received 46 complaints from members of the public relating to properties operating as short-term lets.

An additional 319 properties were identified as potentially engaging in short-term letting, as a result of “pro-active investigation by the local authority”.

Warning letters

A total of 147 warning letters were issued, but no enforcement notices were served, as all cases have been dismissed or resolved through negotiation. Mr Ó Donnabháin added: “It is important to note that significant legislative changes are proposed at Government level.

“These proposed changes have and will affect the resourcing and approach that the city council can give to this issue. As such, the department has advised that the current regulations will expire at the end of February 2026.”

Replacement legislation “is at an advanced stage, and is expected to be in place in Q1 2026”, he added.

The information was provided to Ms O’Connor, who told The Echo: “When the current legislation that exists to regulate this area was introduced by the Fine Gael housing minister in 2019, we were told that the intention of the legislation was ‘to bring homes, once available on the traditional rental market, back into typical long-term renting’.

“Today, when I looked up Daft for a rental property in Cork city, the result was 87 properties. On Airbnb, when I looked for an entire property to rent for a week, the result was 148 homes.

Legislation

“Clearly the legislation has not achieved its goal, and we remain in a situation where a problem which was identified by government in 2019 remains effectively unregulated today.”

“The reply I received at this month’s council meeting states that the current regulations will expire at the end of this month, so the area will go from being effectively unregulated to entirely unregulated, and all we have currently is the promise of ‘proposed’ and ‘expected’ legislation to replace it.

“Meanwhile, it is almost impossible to find anywhere to rent in Cork city, not to mind anywhere affordable.”