Greens to bring plans to Cabinet to add 12,000 homes to housing market

Catherine Martin announces plan to move apartments and houses from short-term letting into the long-term rental market

Green Party deputy leader and minister Catherine Martin. Picture: Sam Boal/Rolling News

An extra 12,000 homes could be brought back into the long-term housing market under plans to be brought to Cabinet soon by the Green Party.

Catherine Martin, Green Party deputy leader, has told her party conference in Athlone she will soon be bringing proposals to Government for robust legislation that will introduce a new short-term property letting register, operated by Fáilte Ireland.

Property owners and online booking platforms offering short-term accommodation will be required to comply in a transparent way with the new system or else face sanctions.

These new controls have the potential to bring an estimated 12,000 much-needed homes back into the long-term housing market, she told delegates.

The Irish Examiner understands that any party offering accommodation for periods of up to and including 21 nights will need to be registered with Fáilte Ireland. Before advertising properties, booking platforms will have to check property details and only advertise properties with a valid Fáilte Ireland registration number.

The draft legislation will require the owners of short-term and holiday lets to register with Fáilte Ireland. 

The major online booking platforms in operation in Ireland are Airbnb, Booking.com, HomeAway and TripAdvisor. There are about 90 smaller platforms operating here.

The legislation and the register will only apply to advertising online, it is understood.

Fáilte Ireland estimates that the measure could take 12,000 full unit properties — entire houses and apartments etc — out of short-term letting and potentially into long-term housing.

There are at least 27,000 short-term let properties (130,000 beds) in the State currently being advertised online. An estimated 20,000 of these are full properties, not just individual rooms or shared spaces.

The plan is to progress the legislation through the Oireachtas and EU notification procedures to allow the register to be in place by the end of March 2023. Ms Martin is expected to bring the proposals to Government shortly.

She said she is “delighted” to welcome back Neasa Hourigan and Patrick Costello into the parliamentary party following their six-month expulsion.

Ms Martin said: “As we work together as greens to tackle the greatest challenge facing humanity, I am delighted that two members of our Green family, Deputies Costello and Hourigan are now back where they belong in our Parliamentary Party.” 

She said one of the party’s core policies, cost rental housing, is now happening because they are in Government.

“That’s new innovative change — 18,000 cost-rental units will be delivered by 2030 and more must and will be done. The Greens in Government have also ensured that there will be 100% public housing on public land in Dublin and Cork,” she said.

“We have been rock-steady in Government, having no time for populist, kneejerk policy reactions which have unintended consequences of fuelling inflation,” she said.

"We have provided a crucial level of stability for our economy and that stability is amplified when we have seen instability, unfortunately, in policies adopted in neighbouring countries."