Up to 75% of short-term lets empty as homelessness nears 17,000, new figures show

The Government is in the middle of a crackdown on short-term lets, with proposed legislation introduced in May to introduce a register managed by Fáilte Ireland.

At least three quarters of properties advertised for short-term lets are either empty or underoccupied at any given time, stark new figures have revealed.

Briefing documents prepared for tourism minister Peter Burke’s officials, and released to the Irish Examiner under Freedom of Information, show occupancy rates can drop to as low as 4% across the country.

It comes as new homelessness figures revealed that nearly 17,000 people were in emergency accommodation in November.

The Government is in the middle of a crackdown on short-term lets, with proposed legislation introduced in May to introduce a register managed by Fáilte Ireland. Hosts offering accommodation for periods up to 21 nights will be obliged to register their property.

Briefing documents recently prepared for Mr Burke’s advisers by the Department of Enterprise confirmed the occupancy rates for the sector in 2024.

It noted that the nationwide occupancy rates ranged from 4.36% to 27.7%.

“This means many properties are intermittently occupied or underoccupied, and there is a significant loss of opportunity,” they said.

Bed spaces

They also prepared a table comparing the number of short-term let nights sold, based on “experimental statistics” provided by Eurostat, and the number of bed spaces available. The bed spaces were calculated through Fáilte Ireland “scrapping” Airbnb, Booking.com, Tripadvisor, and VRBO.

In January, there were 4.2m bed spaces available, but just 185,354 short-term let nights sold. This, the department stated, represented just 4.36% of nights sold as a percentage of max capacity. The percentage of nights sold increased to 10.45% in February and continued to grow throughout the spring months.

In June, of 4.6m bedspaces, 862,000 nights were sold, or 18.75%. This continued to grow throughout the summer months, increasing to 24.13% of bedspaces being sold in July, and peaking at 27.75% in August. The number of bedspaces for sale also peaked in August, rising to 4.9m.

However, once the summer period ended, the number of nights sold as a percentage of the maximum capacity began to fall, dropping to below 8% by November and December.

'Worsening the housing crisis'

Labour’s housing spokesman Conor Sheehan said the Government’s failure to regulate the short-term let sector is “worsening the housing crisis and removing badly needed properties from the long-term rental market and contributing to high rents and shortages of housing”.

He added: “The fact that occupancy levels across the board are so low is evidence that the majority of these properties ought to be available on the long-term rental market.”

He also suggested that rules should be put in place to determine an “appropriate level” of short-term lets in areas across the country.

Sinn Féin’s housing spokesman, Eoin Ó Broin, meanwhile, stated that the underoccupancy is “not acceptable”.

“‘While the data should be treated with some caution, as the Department themselves describe it as ‘experimental’, it does show significant levels of underoccupancy of these properties,” he said.

“Given that the vast majority of these properties received planning permission for long-term occupancy, this level of underoccupancy is not acceptable.”

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Meanwhile, new figures published by the Department of Housing confirmed that 16,966 people were in emergency homelessness accommodation in November, up from 16,766 in October. This included 5,321 children.

Rory Hearne, the Social Democrats’ housing spokesman, stated that these children “opened their Christmas presents in a hotel room or substandard accommodation instead of in a secure, permanent home”.