Temple Bar apartment owners can seek Airbnb permission

The owners of a Temple Bar apartment that has been banned from use as an Airbnb holiday home could seek planning permission to run the property as a short-term let, Dublin City Council has said.

An Bord Pleanála this week ruled that the use of the apartment at Crown Alley in Dublin had been changed from residential to short-term holiday letting and that this change required planning permission.

The board’s ruling upheld a council decision made earlier this year that planning permission was required to use the apartment for short-term letting.

However, the council said on Thursday there was nothing in the board’s ruling to prohibit the owners from now seeking permission to use the property as a full-time holiday home, and that any application would be judged on its own merits .

“If such an application was made it would undergo a full assessment to determine if it would be appropriate.

"The impact on other apartments in the block would be assessed, as would the impact on the surrounding area," deputy city planner Mary Conway said.

The board’s ruling was “site specific” and “does not set a precedent” for other apartment owners using the short-term lettings site, she said.

“This decision cannot be applied across the board, so we are preparing a submission to the Department of Housing in relation to a planning review of what constitutes a residential apartment and what constitutes a short-term holiday let. That clarity would allow us to deal with all cases of this type.”

‘Lack of clarity’

On Thursday, Minister for Housing Simon Coveney acknowledged there was a lack of clarity around the role Airbnb plays in the property market.

“I think we as a department with responsibility for policy and guidelines around planning need to provide some guidelines and clarity now for chief executives across all local authorities,” he said.

Airbnb had a role to play in the property market, he said, “but I think there needs to be clarity around what that role is, and at the moment I don’t think there is”.

A spokesman for Airbnb said the company would welcome clarity on the rules on "home-sharing platforms" in Ireland.

"We have worked with policy-makers in Europe and around the world on rules that distinguish between home-sharing and unwelcome commercial operators, including London, Paris, Amsterdam, Milan, Lisbon. "

He added that the Temple Bar case “did not reflect typical hosting activity in Ireland”.

Attempts to contact the apartment’s owners were unsuccessful.