Government Planning Major Clampdown On AirBnBs In Dublin City

The Government has revealed that it is planning a clampdown on properties being rented regularly on accommodation website AirBnB.

Minister Simon Coveney said this week that apartments and houses that were constantly being rented were “no different to hostel-style, B&B-style accommodation” and new guidelines would be introduced around planning permission for these properties.

“I think AirBnb has a role to play in the broader property market but I think there needs to be clarity around what that role is, and at the moment I don’t think there is,” he told The Irish Times.

“I think if you own a property and you’re living there and you rent a room or you rent a house out for a few weeks of the year through AirBnB – that’s the way many, many households use it and it’s quite successful in that. But I think it’s a different thing when a property is for sale and it’s being advertised as having an €80,000 income from Airbnb with turnover every few days.”

His remarks come after An Bórd Pleanala ruled that a two-bedroom property in Temple Bar had undergone “a material change of use” due to AirBnB activity and was no longer exempt from planning regulations.

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