It seems to be more and more likely that Dublin is to introduce a very restrictive policy against short term renting.
The political problem is that town planning is non existent - there are too few homes. There is no political will to make hard decisions to actually solve the problem. Blaming Airbnb is a convenient gesture.
Unlike Berlin or London this will affect not only whole dwelling (apartments / houses etc.) but even the renting out of single rooms!
It is therefore likely to be the world's most restrictive policy. And this is the city that hosts the European Airbnb HQ!
The proposed restriction is "said" to be 90days, but figures of 60days, per property, per year have been reported.
Those clamouring for this move often highlight Berlin, where in fact the law was recently relaxed after 2 years as it had made no discernable difference to the housing problem.
Many pensioners rely on the small income from a single room rent to make ends meet. Others rely on it to help pay down huge negative equity mortgages.
At the same time - single rooms are not going to be able to accomodate homeless families (which is the housing problem the new measures are supposed to tackle)
And and the same time still - in tourist earning terms Dublin benefits hugely from the availability of these single rooms. Where are the increasing numbers of tourists and travellers to overnight (and help pay down Ireland's huge debts)?
As hosts of single rooms - what can we do to highlight these points? Who can we lobby? Is there enough interest for a meet up?
And what is Airbnb doing? What lobbying is it doing? Looking at the reporting on this issue it seems that Airbnb wants to defend the complete model - including whole property rentals - and so risks losing all of its business here.
