Government ‘never suggested’ short term lets were root cause of rental crisis, says Tánaiste Simon Harris

The comments come as the ESRI published research on Friday into the use short-term lets across the country.

In the report, the ESRI said it did not find a link between increases in short term lets and decreases in new long term tenancies.

As the Government plans to introduce regulations on short term lets in Ireland that advertised on websites like Airbnb, it is expected this could bring 12,000 properties back into the long-term rental market.

However, the report cast doubt on these plans, as the findings suggest the increase in short-term let activity is not the main cause of rental shortages in Ireland.

Speaking on Friday, Tánaiste Simon Harris said the challenge in the rental market was down to supply and not solely the rest of an increase in short term lets.

“So from my reading of the ESRI report, it states that the issue in relation to the lack of rental supply, the root cause of that is not short term lets.

“I would say in response, we never suggested it was. The challenge in relation to a lack of rental stock is a lack of supply and that’s why the government has to continue to be restless in terms of increasing the amount of houses to rent and to buy in our country,” the Tánaiste said.

The Short-Term Lettings Bill will effectively see a clampdown on these short term rental properties in areas where there is a population of over 10,000.

These rental properties will also have to be registered with a new Fáilte Ireland register.

While the ESRI found that at local authority level there is “no correlation” between increases in Airbnb activity and reductions in new tenancies, this did not mean Airbnbs have not had a “detrimental impact” on the long-term rental market in some areas.

“I also note that the ESRI report does also say that it doesn’t conclude that there isn’t a detrimental impact on the rental market by short term lets and I do think regulating the short term letting sector makes sense,” Mr Harris said.

“The Government promised, my party Fine Gael promised, that if returned to government we would do everything and use every lever at our disposal to try and make more housing available for people who are desperate to buy homes, to rent homes, to get out of the box room of their parents houses.

“This is just one of a number of initiatives that we intend to take to regulate this sector,” he added.

Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said there has been a lack of urgency in dealing with the short term rental market and that current legislation needs to be enforced to deal with these rentals in areas with rent pressure zones.

“My concern is there’s a lack of urgency. For almost a decade, we’ve been calling for proper regulation of the short term letting sector, unlike hotels, unlike BnB’s, or unlike the private rental sector today, it is completely unregulated,” Mr Ó Broin said.

“What we want is the existing regulations in rent pressure zones fully enforced, and then a more flexible regime in those rural tourism hot spots to ensure there’s regulation, but in a way that doesn’t undermine the tourist economy,” he added.

Mr Ó Broin said “nobody ever said short term letting was the cause of the housing crisis” but that regulation was necessary.

“Fianna Fáil are the cause of the housing crisis, but regulating the sector is the right thing to do in and of itself,” Mr Ó Broin said.

“In the first instance, because we can’t have a sector, either in tourism or in the rental market, that’s unregulated.

“But any extra property in a rent pressure zone that is brought from unregulated, illegal, short term letting, that’s what it is, into long term rental or long term owner occupation is one property that is to be welcomed,” he added.

Mr Ó Broin was speaking after the publication of the latest figures which show homelessness has hit another record high.

The number of people who accessed emergency accommodation rose to 15,418 in March.

“It’s a significant increase, an extra 40 families and increases among adults, families, children and pensioners. This is a direct consequence of the failure of the Government to address this ever deepening housing and homelessness crisis,” Mr Ó Broin said.