Short-term letting in Ireland: the rules owners need in 2026

Who this guide is for

If you own a house, an apartment or a cottage in the Republic of Ireland and want to let it to visitors for short stays, three sets of rules decide what you can do: planning law, run by your county or city council; a new national register, run by Fáilte Ireland; and tax, administered by Revenue. On top of these sit the private rules of your building when it is managed by an owners' management company. This page walks through each layer as it stood at the end of September 2026.

The whole country is a Rent Pressure Zone

Since 20 June 2025 every part of the State has been designated a Rent Pressure Zone. That matters for short lets because the planning regulations introduced in 2019 bite inside those zones: letting a property that is not your home for short stays is a change of use, and a change of use needs planning permission. Under the rules still in force, a short-term let means a stay of less than 14 days at a time.

Three situations remain outside the permission requirement:

• Home-sharing: letting one or more rooms in your principal private residence while you live there, with no cap on nights.
• Letting your whole home while you are away, for up to 90 days in total per year.
• Longer stays of 15 days or more, and properties that already hold a permission for tourist use.

These exemptions are not silent. Home-sharers and owners letting their home while away notify the planning authority on form 15 at the start of the year, form 16 when the 90-day threshold is reached and form 17 at year end. A second home or investment flat let to visitors needs full permission, and councils can bring enforcement proceedings under the Planning and Development Act 2000 where it is missing.

The planning reform approved in June 2026

On 19 June 2026 the Government approved a National Planning Statement on short-term letting, the planning half of Ireland's response to EU Regulation 2024/1028. Its main lines:

• The definition widens to stays of up to 21 nights.
• In cities and towns with more than 20,000 inhabitants at the 2022 Census, there is a presumption against granting permission. Exceptions are narrow: bringing a protected structure back into use, empty space above shops, small structures within the grounds of a home.
• In places of 20,000 people or fewer, the council weighs local housing need, the concentration of short lets in an estate or block, and traffic, flood or pollution risks. Existing operators there get two years to become planning-compliant.
• Where a property has been let short-term continuously for seven years or more without enforcement, there is a presumption in favour of granting permission, including by retention.

Around twenty urban areas sit above the threshold: Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford, and larger towns such as Drogheda, Dundalk, Bray, Kilkenny, Ennis, Tralee, Athlone and Greystones. Check the precise boundary with your council, because the threshold follows the census settlement, not the county.

The Fáilte Ireland register

The Government has announced that the register opens on 1 December 2026, with everyone obliged to register expected to do so by 31 December 2026. Each unit offered for up to 21 nights gets its own registration number, which must appear on every listing and advertisement; platforms will have to remove listings without a valid number. Applicants give host and property details, including Eircode and capacity, pay an annual fee still to be announced, and make a legal declaration that the property complies with planning, building and fire-safety rules. Fáilte Ireland does not assess planning itself, but a false declaration is the owner's problem. At the time of writing, the Short-Term Letting and Tourism Bill was still going through the Oireachtas, and Fáilte Ireland says the portal opens once the law is in place, so the date could still move.

Tax on short-let income

Revenue does not treat short-stay income as rent, because guests are not tenants. If you let frequently and regularly, advertise and manage bookings as a business, the profit is trading income under Case I, with deductions for costs incurred wholly and exclusively for the trade and capital allowances on furniture and fittings. Occasional letting falls under Case IV, where only incidental costs such as cleaning and platform commission are deductible. Rent-a-room relief does not cover rooms used for short-term guest accommodation. Income is declared on Form 12 through myAccount for PAYE workers, or on Form 11 through ROS for the self-employed and anyone with several income sources. Platforms report host earnings to Revenue under the EU DAC7 rules, and VAT registration can become relevant once turnover from services passes the threshold, so keep clean records from day one.

Apartments and owners' management companies

In an apartment block or managed estate, the owners' management company (OMC) can adopt house rules under the Multi-Unit Developments Act 2011, and the lease may already restrict use to a private residence. Read both before you list: a council permission does not override a covenant, and complaints from neighbours usually start with the OMC.

A practical order of work

• Establish which side of the 20,000 line your property falls on.
• Pull the planning history from the council's online portal and decide whether you are an exempt home-sharer, need permission, or can rely on long established use.
• Check your lease and the OMC's house rules.
• Prepare the registration file: Eircode, floor area, capacity, fire-safety equipment, insurance.
• Set up bookkeeping that separates nights, platform payouts and costs.

We work on the owner's side of this. Tell us where the property is and how you use it; we study every request and tell you honestly whether and how we can help.