Airbnb agrees to meet City Council over housing crisis

Executives from Airbnb have agreed to meet with Galway City Council amid claims growth in the popularity of its online short-term holiday letting website is worsening the city’s housing shortage.

Airbnb representatives have accepted an invitation to make a presentation to members of the Council’s Planning Strategic Policy Committee.

The move by Airbnb to address the SPC comes after this newspaper highlighted elected representatives’ concerns that the shortage of housing in the city has been intensified by the proliferation of Airbnb.

Last week, Labour Party City Councillor Niall McNelis warned that landlords are turning away from long-term letting, in favour of Airbnb.

“You have a bizarre situation whereby Galway City Council is spending tens of thousands of Euros to house people in emergency accommodation such as hotels, as is their obligation, and on the other hand you have landlords exiting the long-term letting market in favour of Airbnb, which is their right. This is exacerbating our housing and homelessness crisis,” said Cllr McNelis.

The SPC meets quarterly and is scheduled to convene next on May 1.

Caroline Phelan, senior planner at the local authority, has told the company: “It would be important that any party attending is working directly for Airbnb rather than in a servicing public relations capacity.”

Cllr McNelis, who is on the SPC, had sought clarity from the local authority in relation to the legal status of Airbnb properties, and whether they should be treated as businesses for water and rates charges.

This week he welcomed confirmation that Airbnb would address officials and elected members of the Council on the Planning SPC later this year. “I’m looking forward to them addressing the concerns I have raised,” he said.