Regulation of Short Term Letting

Currently the following is applicable within the administrative area of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council:

• Short term letting is defined as the letting of a house or apartment, or part of a house or apartment, for any period not exceeding 14 days.
• Homesharing (the letting of a room or rooms in a person’s principal private residence) will continue to be permissible on an unrestricted basis and be exempted from the new planning requirements.
• Homesharers will be allowed to sub-let their entire principle private residence (house or apartment) on a short term basis for a cumulative period of 90 days where they are temporarily absent from their home.
• Where the 90 day threshold is exceeded, change of use planning permission will be required.

If you homeshare your principal private residence in a rent pressure zone and wish to avail of the planning exemptions, you will need to register this with your local authority and fulfil specified reporting obligations i.e. where applicable Form(s) 15, 16 and 17 on an annual basis .

Where a person owns a property in this Council's jurisdiction which is not their principal private residence and intends to let it for short-term letting purposes, s/he will be required to apply for a change of use planning permission unless the property already has a specific planning permission to be used for tourism or short-term letting purposes.

Homesharing

Homesharing is the letting of a room or rooms in a person’s principal private residence (house or apartment) while it is occupied by the resident.

Short-term letting

Short term letting is the letting of a house or apartment, or part of a house or apartment, for any period not exceeding 14 days.

There is no restriction that lettings must be in 14 day blocks. Lettings may be for any period between 1 to 14 days e.g. lettings may be of a duration of 1, 4 or 10 days once the period of the letting is 14 days or less.

Longer letting of 15 days or more do not fall within the scope of the current provisions and are permissible. A host can let a property to the same guest for periods of 15 days or more. Normal tax rules will apply.

The 90 cap relates to the total cumulative number of letting days over a calendar year period that a homesharer can let their permanent place of residence (house or apartment) while they are temporarily absent from their home. For example, a homesharer may possibly let their entire principal private residence for 2 days on 45 separate weekends in a year i.e. 45 weekends x 2 days = 90 days without having to obtain planning permission.

The use of any house or apartment for short-term letting use in a rent pressure zone is a ‘material change in the use’ of the structure. In other words, any short-term letting use in a house or apartment will be deemed to be development requiring planning permission except where the relevant exemptions apply.

Homes or apartments which already have a specific grant of planning permission for use as holiday accommodation/ short-term tourism type letting are not impacted by the current regulations.

If there is an uncertainty as to when planning permission is required, a person should contact the Planning Department and seek a declaration under section 5 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 which will confirm the position.

The Short-Term Letting Register

A new Short-Term Letting Register will be introduced by Fáilte Ireland following the enactment of the Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill 2025. 

Information on this proposal is available to view at the following link