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Airbnb-style rentals to be regulated everywhere in Ireland

This comes as the country struggles with a housing shortage, partially due to the rising popularity of short-term home rentals.

Marrian Zhou Staff Reporter
Marrian Zhou is a Beijing-born Californian living in New York City. She joined CNET as a staff reporter upon graduation from Columbia Journalism School. When Marrian is not reporting, she is probably binge watching, playing saxophone or eating hot pot.
Marrian Zhou
2 min read
dublin

Strolling through Dublin's Temple Bar district.

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Ireland is looking to regulate sites like Airbnb .

Housing minister Eoghan Murphy said on Thursday that Ireland will regulate short-term rentals and home-sharing sites like Airbnb in order to tackle a serious housing shortage in popular cities such as Dublin, according to Reuters.

Ireland has reportedly been struggling with the decreasing amount of housing available for long-term rentals, partially due to the booming home sharing business.

"The reforms being presented here aim to bring homes, once available on the traditional rental market, back into typical long-term renting, to regulate for the first time short-term lets, and to allow homesharing to continue as it was originally meant to be -- a homeowner hosting people in their own home for short periods of time," said the Irish department of housing, planning and local government.

It's not the first time government officials have blamed Airbnb-style rentals for housing issues, but it may be the first time a whole country has tried to regulate the industry. New York City officials said in May that rising rents in the Big Apple are partially Airbnb's fault. Besides New York, Airbnb has clashed with lawmakers in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, New Orleans, Amsterdam, Paris and Berlin, among others.

The new regulations in Ireland will go into effect from June and aim to discourage regular landlords from putting their properties out as short-term rentals, according to Reuters. Second homes can't be used for short-term listings unless they're approved for tourism purposes by the local government.

A homeowner will reportedly be allowed to rent out her or his entire home for a maximum of 90 days in a year and up to 14 days at a time. Homeowners will be able to rent out a room without any restriction.

Airbnb didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.