Nearly 22,000 entire properties are available for short-term rental to tourists and holidaymakers, compared to fewer than 1,800 properties available for long-term renters, new figures reveal.
Tourism Minister Peter Burke confirmed that 34,000 short-term lets were advertised across four platforms in May, with approximately 64% offering entire houses or apartments. This represents a 10% annual increase in the short-term letting sector.
The stark disparity highlights Ireland’s housing crisis, with availability on Daft.ie dropping throughout the week from 1,800 properties nationwide on Wednesday to just 1,633 by Monday. Dublin saw rentals fall from 868 to 838 properties over the same period.
Meanwhile, homelessness figures for June show 15,915 people in emergency accommodation, including 4,958 children and 2,230 families.
Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne criticized the situation, stating there are “twice as many entire properties being let as short-term lets as the number of households who are homeless.”
“We could house everyone in homelessness twice over in the number of full homes being let short-term,” he said, calling it a “shocking indictment of the Government’s housing failures.”
New legislation approved by Cabinet in April will introduce a register for short-term lets from May 2026, with restrictions in towns over 10,000 people. However, the bill won’t complete the legislative process until later this year.