Airbnb – a double-edged sword in a never-ending housing shortage

IT’S been long established that it’s easier to find a cosy two-bedroom apartment to rent for a night or two in Westport than it is to live in that same apartment.

Even if you managed the latter, you’d still be forking out well over a grand a month in rent for living in Mayo’s most sought-after town.

Airbnb has not quite yet transformed the hospitality industry – but it has significantly lowered the barrier for entry for those seeking to participate in the hospitality industry.

Now, we have data which bears out the economic benefits of the explosion in short-term lets in Mayo.

A boom of over €20 million is not to be sniffed at, particularly at a time when hospitality is grappling with the ongoing after-effects of Covid, sky-high energy bills and a soon-to-be reinstated 13.5 percent VAT rate.

That €21 million spin-off is all the more vital at a time when a third of Mayo’s hotel rooms are being used to accommodate refugees.

It’s been well versed in these pages and other outlets that Westport, in particular, has had a quieter summer than usual.

Cllr Peter Flynn has sounded warnings about the long-term effects of lost repeat business arising from reduced hotel and B&B stock.

However, had Airbnb not been available to holidaymakers in the West, the summer of 2023 may have been much wetter and drearier for the hospitality trade.

The recent Oxford Economicsanalysis does not break down Airbnb spin-off by electoral area. But with over 500 Airbnbs in the area, it’s quite likely that West Mayo reaped the lion’s share of this splurge.

Airbnb correctly argues that their platform has made tourism more accessible, particularly in peripheral regions where hotel and B&B accommodation is scarce.

Drain on housing supply

BUT the drain on the housing supply in tourist hotspots cannot be overlooked.

Log on to Daft.ie any day of the week and you may only find a handful of properties to rent long-term around Westport.

Quite often, there are no long-term listings in Mulranny, Newport or Louisburgh either.

For example, there were recently 385 entire houses or apartments in the Westport LEA listed on Airbnb – a company founded as a platform letting out spare rooms, not entire properties.

But it’s incorrect, however, to say that the abysmally low supply of rental accommodation in Mayo is solely down to Airbnb.

Because even non-tourist towns like Ballinrobe, Kiltimagh and Ballyhaunis frequently have little to no houses available to rent long-term.

As we outlined in these pages last May, Airbnb is merely a symptom of a much wider housing problem.

What has changed since then?

Not very much regarding the cost of buying and renting a house, which has consistently risen across Mayo.

Rent Pressure Zone

THE one major development on the Airbnb front is that the Westport Electoral Area has been designated as a Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ)

This means that homeowners must obtain planning permission if letting out a second property on the website or letting out their own home for more than 90 days while they are away.

This is likely to have some effect, given that the average Airbnb in the area is let out for 92 days, generating an income of over €13,000.

There is also talk tax relief in the October’s budget to encourage landlords back into the long-term rental market.

But will Westport landlords start selling up in greater numbers on foot of RPZ regulations, which limit rent increases to 2 percent?

Only time will tell if many Airbnb landlords in Mayo will revert back to long-term lets on foot of these measures.

But with more than 1,300 Airbnbs to choose from across the county right now, that shows no sign of happening any time soon.