New figures show there are thousands more entire properties available for short-term lets on rental platforms when compared to long-term living. 

According to an investigation by the Irish Examiner,  short-term letting websites offer those looking at short stays the opportunity to rent nearly 22,000  'entire' houses or properties on a short-term basis. That is in comparison with just 1,800 properties or fewer that were available for renters across the country on daft.ie.

Louise Burne, Political Correspondent with the Examiner, explained the current situation on The Pat Kenny Show.

“These figures were shared with the Social Democrats’ Rory Hearne as he requested the figures from the Enterprise and Tourism Minister Peter Burke as a parliamentary question. 

“Deputy Hearne had asked for the number of short-term lets, the likes of [AirB&B] and places where you can stay for up to two weeks.

“Minister Burke said there are 34,000 short-term lets that were advertised in the month of May and that was up from 33,000 in April.

"Of these 34,000 properties, 64% are advertised as an entire house or an entire apartment, that’s just shy of 22,000 properties.”

“If you look at the number of entire properties available for short-term lets on the four major [renting] platforms, they outnumber [long-term rentals] at about 12 to one." 

Apartments are being let in large numbers to tourists. Photo. Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland.

Short-term lets in Ireland

Ms Burne explained that the government has announced plans to address the problem of the disparity between properties available for long- and short-term lets. Only properties that are appropriate for the short term letting platforms will be permitted to be on them, as properties will have to be formally registered and have suitable permissions. 

“These are long-awaited plans, and the previous government was criticised for not bringing in this crackdown on the short term lets sooner”, Ms Burne explained.

“From May 2026, there will be a requirement for people renting properties for up to 21 nights to register and to hold a valid registration number for that property, and it has to be displayed when they’re advertising that property”. 

A register is planned to be created for all short-term lets in Ireland, to be managed by Fáilte Ireland”.

“There’s also a crackdown on the types of properties that can be rented out, so if you’re living in a town with a population of over 10,000 people. The short term lets will be restricted” says Ms Burne. 

Michael Healy Rae, Minister for State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine explained that he feels there needs to be a balance struck between accommodation for people living in an area, and such designed for tourists. 

“It’s gotten more difficult for people to secure accommodation in the private market," Mr Healy-Rae said. 

However, he believes that “If we drive the short-term renters out, [it] would be bad for tourism, bad for our small shops, and small businesses.” 

“People with farmhouses that they’ve rented out, or flats that they’ve rented out, on a short-term basis didn’t create the housing crisis in Ireland nor neither are they the solution to it.”