Rent pressure laws ‘absolutely ludicrous’ in Kerry as nearly all short-term lets remain illegal

By Alastair Tibbs, The Kerryman

Rent pressure zone regulations have been denounced as “absolutely ludicrous” in Kerry, as the reality of the short-term letting market and the law drift further apart.

Only seven short-term letting planning applications have been granted in the county since 2000, even after changes to the law which made it illegal to run short-term accommodation without permission.

A short-term let is a property, or room within a property, that is rented out for less than 14 days at a time, an arrangement which must have planning permission inside any designated Rent Pressure Zones (RPZ).

While the whole country was classified as a RPZ in June this year, Killarney Municipal District (MD) has been an RPZ since 2020 and viewed as a pilot, raises serious questions.

In the Killarney MD there are over 150 properties on AirBnB alone, despite only seven short-term letting providers in the whole county gaining permission to operate since 2000.

Killarney-based Councillor John O’Donoghue said so few short-term let planning applications had been granted because few had actually been submitted.

He said there was strong feeling among short-term let owners that the council wouldn’t grant them planning permission, given the current housing shortage in the county.

“There is a perception for right or for wrong that because of this national legislation and there’s such a crisis when it comes to housing, people just feel they are going to be shut down immediately,” he said.

“And there’s a feeling if you apply and are refused, that’ll be it and you’re handing them a loaded gun. They’ll have a cast iron case against you.

“Straight off, what the council needs to do is come and view the properties, and if it does seem very logical that it will never be a long-term rental property, then the operator should be allowed to continue…it should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

“At moment there is just no give whatsoever, it’s just everybody is that same. It’s tough.”

He added that was “absolutely ludicrous” that the entire Killarney MD, and now the whole country, was an RPZ.

While he recognised the intention behind the legislation, he felt the government had used a “sledgehammer to drive a nail”.

“On the other side of it you have very large groups probably owning a colossal amount of houses in the town that are short-term letting them because we’re a victim of how popular Killarney is,” he said.

“If you’ve got deep enough pockets and you can buy houses to short-term let, you can make a lot of money from it. And that does make it extraordinarily difficult for people to rent.

“However, it’s absolutely ludicrous to think our entire municipal district is a rent pressure zone.

“That means if you take somewhere up near the county bounds like Clonkeen, which is very rural, for the purposes of renting that’s viewed the same as main street in Killaney which is ludicrous. It makes no sense whatsoever.”

Noelle Casey, vice-chair of the Irish Self-Catering Federation (ISCF) and owner of a short-term let near Killarney, agreed that the government had “used a sledgehammer to crack a nut”.

Many short-term lets included in the Killarney RPZ are out in the countryside and don’t face severe renting shortages, if any, she said. These owners typically have no interest in long-term letting and would choose exiting the market altogether over putting up long-term tenants.

“We got into self-catering because we had to diversify for farm income because it was back in 2009,” said Ms Casey.

“We were dairy farmers, and the milk price was on the floor…it was a way of supplementing income, especially for farming families.

“We never want to be long-term landlords at all…I'd rather take people on a tour of the farm and bring them in for a cup of coffee into the house than rent it out long term. It just wouldn't suit where it is location-wise. I know other people are the same.”

Indeed, the ISCF conducted a survey on short-term lets which found that 90pc of respondents would not move to long-term rental even if they were threatened with closure.

Ms Casey highlighted that the self-catering has been an important contributor to Ireland’s tourism industry all the way back to the mid-20th century.

Kerry is especially reliant on the sector, with more than 1,850 holiday homes in the county, which if removed could impose an annual loss of €72.4m, according ISCF figures.

“If there's no investment in Cork and Kerry, and they decide to shut down people who provide catering, that's going to have an awful knock-on effect on cafes and restaurants in the towns,” said Ms Casey.

“There might be parts of Kerry that people just won't visit, or they might not use the greenway, because there's nowhere to stay. And families will just be encouraged to stay away because there won't be anywhere to house them all together.

“You have to balance the housing needs, but you also have to be careful that you don't punish the tourism industry, which is our largest indigenous industry.”