Tenants losing out to tourists, says new report

The national housing charity, Threshold, has reiterated its call for regulation of the short-term letting market after new research from Daft.ie showed that less than half of all listed rental properties in Dublin are available to long-term tenants.

The property listings website found that over half of all available rental properties in Dublin are being listed as short-term tourist lets. Their research has revealed that landlords are increasingly opting to let to tourists rather than to long-term tenants. 
This was evidenced by the fact that, on May 15 last week, 53 percent of homes in the Dublin rental market were not available to long-term tenants.

On that day, there were just 1,258 long-term rental properties available in Dublin on Daft.ie. By contrast, the stock of full homes to let on Airbnb from professional listers (according to Inside Airbnb) stood at 1,419.

Further research from Daft.ie suggests that the decline in long-term rental accommodation shows no signs of slowing, with stock on the Dublin rental market set to dip below 1,000 units for the first time since 2001 by the end of this year.

Eamonn Fallon, co-founder of Daft.ie, said: "Action urgently needs to be taken to increase supply, both in Dublin and nationwide. The country needs close to 50,000 homes a year to cater to underlying housing demand – both market and social.
“Of the 50,000 homes, 15,000 are needed for the rental market with 10,000 of those in the capital. To put the scale of this challenge into concrete terms, Dublin alone needs an apartment block of 200 units to open every week for at least the next decade.”

Commenting on the findings, Threshold chief executive, John-Mark McCafferty, said: “While there is a place for short-term lets in the tourist market, it’s very worrying for a city that has a housing crisis that such a high percentage of properties are essentially off limits to long-term tenants. As we have been saying, there is a certain irony that families who need long-term tenancies are staying in bed and breakfasts, hotels and other emergency accommodation that is designed for short-term use, while many tourists looking for short-term accommodation are staying in housing, traditionally long-term accommodation.”

He added: “The fact that such a high percentage of properties currently available for rent in Dublin are for short-term use would suggest that units that were formerly people’s homes now fall into this category. This highlights the insecurity that renters face, both in their tenancies and in the supply of properties to rent.”