Airbnb welcomes Irish Government’s proposal of short-term lets register
Airbnb recognises the historic housing challenges facing Ireland and we want our platform to be part of the solution.
We welcome regulation and in June, we launched the ‘Airbnb Community Tourism and Housing Protection Plan‘ – a series of measures to support responsible hosting in Ireland and help make existing home sharing enforceable and effective. At the heart of this proposal was a Host register to give authorities the information they need to regulate our industry effectively.
The government’s decision to introduce such a register is a welcome step forward towards creating clear, simple and enforceable home sharing rules in Ireland. Establishing a Host register will allow authorities to better enforce the rules, support everyday Hosts and take action against property speculators that damage communities. We look forward to working closely with the government and the Oireachtas on next steps.
Today’s announcement comes shortly after Airbnb welcomed proposals from the EU for a bloc-wide approach to regulating short-term rentals, including making local rules clear and simple for everyday Hosts, and giving authorities better access to data to support effective policy-making.
The majority of Hosts on Airbnb in Ireland are everyday families who share their primary home and rent their space for just three nights a month on average, with the typical Host earning more than €5,600 a year1 – approximately two months of additional pay for the median Irish household.
More than half of Hosts in Ireland say they host to afford the rising cost of living, and over a third say the additional income helps them make ends meet as energy prices and mortgage repayments increase2. Almost a quarter of Irish Hosts work in either education, healthcare or hospitality, and over two thirds are women and more than a quarter are over 603.
Derek Nolan, Head of Public Policy for Ireland at Airbnb said, “Everyday families in Ireland rely on Airbnb for affordable accommodation and for additional income, ever more vital as the cost of living continues to rise. Clear and simple rules are good news for everyone and will help more families share their homes to boost their income, while making communities in Ireland stronger.”
The growth of short-term let activity has also generated substantial direct and indirect financial benefits for Ireland’s tourism sector, as well as playing a vital role in its continued recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. A 2020 study by Oxford Economics on the impact of travel on Airbnb in communities found that for every 1,000 Airbnb guests who visited Dublin, five local jobs in the city were supported on average. Furthermore, over a third of guests said their Airbnb listing enabled them to experience an area they probably wouldn’t have visited and almost two thirds said they took up their Host’s recommendation of a local business or place to visit.