20,000 properties can be brought back into use through new legislation – Labour

By Cate McCurry, PA

More than 20,000 properties can be brought back into use through the short-term letting legislation, according to the Labour Party.

New laws that will limit the use of short-term rentals across Ireland came before cabinet on Tuesday, as part a plan to free up housing stock nationwide.

The Short-Term Letting Bill will restrict homeowners from renting properties for more than 90 days a year if they live in an area with a population of more than 10,000.

The legislation will include short-term lets made available through Airbnb.

It was to go before last week’s cabinet but was dropped due to a disagreement between ministers.

Labour’s housing spokesman Conor Sheehan welcomed that the legislation will go before government ministers.

“This is overdue. It’s a very simple measure,” he said on Tuesday.

“There are over 20,000 short-term lets that can be brought back into use. The fact of the matter is, Failte Ireland already has a framework by which to implement this, and we have an EU directive coming in next year.

“I can’t understand what the delay was between last week and this week in relation to this coming before the cabinet. It’s very badly needed.”

He also called for a review of Rent Pressures Zones (RPZ) to be completed, saying the government needs to set out how it will regulate private rents in the future.

On Monday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the review is “imminent”.

Earlier this year, Mr Martin said the Government will assess proposals to phase out RPZ.

Mr Sheehan said: “I really, sincerely hope that that will not amount to allowing landlords to reset the rents in between tenancies as sort of a halfway house with current rent pressure zones.

“We know the Rent Pressure Zones haven’t worked.”

He also called on the Government to set out its new housing policy to deal with the crisis, adding that it needs to be a “radical reset”.

“The Government made much of a hoo-ha last year over getting the new Planning and Development Bill through. That’s true. It now needs to be commenced,” he added.

“A lot of the issues that are there in planning are of the Government’s own making, particularly the Fine Gael side of the Government.

“What we need to see now is for the minister to come up with a plan to deal with the issues that are there around the apartment viability, to deal with the issues that are there around the regulation of the rental market, and to deal with the issues that are there around the activation of brownfield sites.

“I really, sincerely hope that these will be dealt with by way of the Government’s new housing plan, which we hope will not just be a version of Housing for All.

“It’s very clear, vis-à-vis the Housing Commission report that what we need is a radical reset in terms of housing policy, because things are, literally by every available measurable metric, getting worse.”