Professor warns Airbnb is taking homes out of Leitrim’s rental market
With available short-term rentals far outnumbering long-term rental properties in the county, concerns are growing that Airbnb is taking much-needed homes off the market and contributing to rising rents.
Airbnb has become a major area of underused housing in Leitrim, with rental properties being taken up, contributing to rising rental prices.
A cursory glance online shows the disparity between short lets and long-term rentals, with 152 Airbnb rentals on offer compared to only nine properties for rent in the county.
Lorcan Sirr, professor of housing policy at the Technical University of Dublin, says these figures would affect the market rate in the county.
“The theory behind Airbnb was that you'd rent a room in your house to some backpacker for a couple of nights and all that kind of stuff, but it's gone out of hand, and now it's an industry in itself.”
Sirr highlights the negative effect that Airbnb’s growth has on the market and the success of places like Barcelona, which last year banned the company from operating there and have seen rental prices fall as houses go back into the market.
This article was part of a larger Leitrim Observer ‘In Focus’ investigation you can read here.