Council rules that law allows Rathmines co-living to be used for some short-term holiday lets

Dublin City Council has ruled that Bartra’s co-living complex in Rathmines can be used for some short-term stays, a council spokesperson said on Thursday.

The council had opened a planning case last August to look into whether using rooms in the Niche Living complex for short-term lets was a breach of its planning permission, and short-term letting legislation.

Rooms in the complex are bookable on Booking.com for short stays, with nightly rates over the summer months ranging from €129 to €349.

Dublin City Council’s initial position was that short-term letting in a shared-living complex would require planning permission, which hadn’t been granted. 

But “detailed investigations carried out by the Planning Enforcement Section have revealed that the premises concerned is being used in compliance with planning permission”, said a council spokesperson this week.

There are a small percentage of letting arrangements accommodating short-term stays, the spokesperson said. But “the level of such use does not require enforcement action”.

It mirrors the decision made by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council last year, when it looked into short-term letting at a Niche Living complex in its area.

Kieran Rose, a former council planner, says that the decision doesn’t make sense to him. “It is clearly in breach of its planning permission and in breach of public policy, which is to increase the supply of housing.”

Co-living is for people to live in, as the name suggests, he says. “An apartment is one use. An aparthotel is a totally different use.”

The reasoning

A spokesperson for Dublin City Council said it came to its decision based on the fact that short-term stays are not precluded under condition 3 of the planning permission which was granted by An Bord Pleanála.

That condition states that the co-living complex shall operate in line with the definition of build-to-rent developments, as set out in the apartment guidelines from March 2018.

In its correspondence with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council about its complex there, Bartra had made the case that wording in the apartment guidelines suggested that short-term lets use was contemplated as a possible use in co-living – albeit not the main use.

Meanwhile, shared accommodation “units” are not a “house or part of a house” so Section 3(1)(A) of the Planning and Development Act 2000 does not apply to them, the council spokesperson said. 

Therefore, “the short term letting legislation restrictions on houses and apartments does not specifically apply to units in this development”, they said.

“The vast majority of letting periods that are taking place in this development are for period well in excess of the 14 days restrictions that apply to Short Term Lets thus in compliance with the planning approval,” the spokesperson said. So the council has closed the file, they said.

“It seems crazy to me,” says Rose, the former council planner. 

When someone applies for planning permission, they outline what they intend to use the building for, and co-living was pitched as a housing solution. 

Planning applications for hotels are assessed on whether there are already a lot of hotels nearby, he says. “It’s irrational, it undermines the hotels,” says Rose. “It's not on a level playing pitch.”

“The state is trying to sort out the issue of short-term letting,” he says, “but this looks like they have a different rule for the bigger operators.”

Social Democrats TD and housing spokesperson Rory Hearne said he found the decision shocking. 

The central government has acknowledged that between 12,000 and 16,000 homes are being used as short-term lets and that is affecting the supply of housing, he says.

 “I think it seems bizarre, especially when the council has made significant efforts to clamp down on short-term lets in the city,” he said. 

Co-living is for housing, says Hearne. 

He had campaigned against the small size of the homes, he says. “But this is bringing it to another level again.”