The Irish Minister for Housing, Eoghan Murphy, confirmed last week that under new laws home sharing on platforms such as Airbnb will only be allowed where it is a person’s primary residence. 

Homesharing is classified as when a person rents out a part of, or all of, their own home for a period of time, usually to tourists who are visiting the country. It can often help homeowners meet their day-to-day bills or contribute towards their holiday when they are away, for example. 

However, as home sharing has become more popular as a form of tourism letting, it has resulted in some professional landlords withdrawing houses and apartments that would normally be rented on a long-term basis to instead rent them out as short-term lets, the Department of Housing has said. 

And as Ireland is currently in the midst of a deepening housing and homeless crisis, the Department has announced plans to implement new short-term let regulations, to help bring properties back onto the market. 

The new short-term let regulations will start on 1 June 2019 and will operate on a ‘one host, one home’ model in areas of the country where there is deemed to be a high housing demand. This basically means that landlords, or even homeowners who currently let a second property on a short-term basis, will no longer be allowed to do so. In addition, an annual cap of 90 days will apply for the renting out of a home and homeowners can only rent out their homes for 14 days or less at a time.