If you're letting your own home for up to 90 days a year, or a room in it, you don't need planning permission to Airbnb in Ireland. If you let a second home or holiday home, or go over 90 days, you do. That's the short version of the rules in force since 1 March 2026, and they apply across the whole country now, not just in Rent Pressure Zones, which no longer exist. Here's how it works, what's new, and what to do if you're already letting without permission.
The short answer
- Your own home, up to 90 days a year: no planning permission. You notify the council.
- Rooms in your own home (up to four bedrooms): no planning permission.
- Second homes, holiday homes, or over 90 days: planning permission for change of use.
- Already letting without permission: a short retention application with Form 24.
- Registering with Fáilte Ireland: a separate step that applies to everyone, whether or not you need planning.
What changed in 2026
- A national definition. Since 1 March 2026, letting a house, part of a house or a unit for no more than 21 consecutive nights is a material change of use anywhere in Ireland.
- No more Rent Pressure Zones. They were replaced by national rent rules, so your address no longer decides which planning rules apply. The old advice that the 90-day rule only bites in an RPZ is out of date.
- Updated exemptions. S.I. No. 130 of 2026 extended the principal private residence exemptions nationwide and capped room-letting in your own home at four bedrooms.
- A new retention form. S.I. No. 500 of 2026 added Form 24 for hosts who need to regularise an existing short-term let.
Do you need planning permission to Airbnb your house in Ireland?
It depends on whether the property is your main home, how many days a year you let it, and whether you let rooms or the whole place. Find your situation:
- Your whole home (your principal private residence), up to 90 days a year: no planning permission. Notify your council each year with the exempt-letting forms.
- Your whole home, over 90 days a year: planning permission for change of use.
- Rooms in your own home, up to four bedrooms: no planning permission.
- A second home, holiday home, inherited house or a property bought to let: planning permission, whatever the number of nights, if you let for 21 nights or fewer.
- Lets of more than 21 consecutive nights: not short-term letting for planning purposes.
- Already have permission for tourism or short-term letting use: nothing new on planning.
If you're letting your own home: keep your records
If it's your actual residence and you let it for a combined total of no more than 90 days a year, you're exempt from planning permission. This is where most casual hosts sit: letting the house while you're away for a few weeks in summer, or during a big local event. You still need to keep records of the nights you let, because a council can ask for proof if a neighbour complains.
Exempt hosts tell the council using three forms. Councils' own pages can lag behind the law, so check yours. As Citizens Information describes them:
- Form 15: at the start of each year, within four weeks of 1 January and at least two weeks before your first let.
- Form 16: within two weeks of reaching 90 days.
- Form 17: a return between 1 and 28 January of the following year.
Over 90 days, or not your main home
Once you pass 90 days with your own home, or if the property was never your main residence, you need change-of-use permission from your local authority, and it isn't guaranteed. The same goes for a second home, an inherited house, or a place bought to let short-term. The exemption only covers where you actually live.
Drogheda, Dundalk and Navan versus the rest of Louth and Meath
These days, the question that matters most is the size of your town, not a zone map. The Department of Enterprise sets out two tiers:
- Built-up areas of 20,000 or more people: the presumption is against granting new short-term letting permissions, and there is no lead-in period. You confirm planning compliance when you register. Drogheda, Dundalk and Navan are all in this group, and the Bill lists them by name.
- Everywhere else, including smaller towns and rural areas: two years to get planning compliant. That covers places like Ardee, Carlingford and Clogherhead. In the Bill as initiated, those 24 months run from a "relevant date" of 23 October 2026, or from commencement for hosts whose seven years could be reached in the meantime.
There's also a presumption in favour of permission where a dwelling has been let short-term continuously for at least seven years with no enforcement action, provided there's no serious traffic, flooding or pollution risk and no breach of occupancy conditions. If that's you, start gathering your booking history now. Newry and the rest of Northern Ireland sit outside all of this and have their own rules.
What the Short-term Letting and Tourism Bill adds. The Bill, as initiated, amends the Planning and Development Act 2024 with a 24-month window for unauthorised lets outside the listed built-up areas. During that window, those hosts must apply for permission. As we read it, if a host doesn't apply, or withdraws their application, the 24 months are ignored when counting towards the seven-year route. If the Bill commences after 23 October 2026, hosts whose seven years could be reached in between get the 24 months from commencement instead. The Bill defines the 20,000 line by CSO built-up area boundaries from the 2022 census, not by town name, and it lists the areas in a table. It hasn't passed, so the 23 October 2026 start date and the detail could change.
Already letting without permission? Form 24
Since the end of September 2026, hosts who are already letting short-term without permission can apply to retain the change of use using Form 24, under S.I. No. 500 of 2026. It's for that situation only: an application solely to retain an existing short-term let. A new let, or an application that also includes building work, still needs a standard application.
- What it asks for: an estimated floor area, the maximum number of guests at full capacity, when you let and who manages it, the previous use of the property, and a signed declaration.
- What's easier: no floor plans, elevations or sections, and the council can ask for further information only once.
- What still applies: the fee, a newspaper notice and a site notice. Check your council's validation checklist, because an incomplete form makes the application invalid.
We walk through the form step by step in our host's guide to the short-term letting register.
How applying for planning permission works
- Check you need it. If you're unsure whether something is exempt, you can ask your council for a section 5 declaration.
- Give public notice. Publish a newspaper notice in an approved paper and put up a site notice, then lodge your application within two weeks.
- Lodge the application. Online or on paper, with the form, fee, notices and maps. Hosts who must provide drawings include them.
- Public submissions. Anyone can comment within five weeks of the council receiving your application.
- Decision. Councils generally aim to decide within eight weeks. A request for further information pauses the clock.
- Appeal. You or anyone who made a submission has four weeks to appeal to An Coimisiún Pleanála.
What does it cost?
- Retention of change of use: €10.80 per square metre of floor space, with a €240 minimum. An 80 m² house comes to about €864. We found no separate Form 24 fee, so check with your council.
- New permission for change of use: €3.60 per square metre, with an €80 minimum.
- Notices and professional help: the newspaper notice and any planning consultant or solicitor vary. Our estimate for the notice is a few hundred euro.
- Exempt-letting forms (15 to 17): no fee.
Planning is only half the picture
Planning and registration are two separate boxes, and you tick both. The Fáilte Ireland short-term letting register applies even if you're exempt from planning. The Government's target is for it to open on 1 December 2026, with a 31 December 2026 deadline, though Fáilte Ireland says it opens once the legislation passes. You register personally as the owner. Our register guide has the steps, the information you'll need and the dates to put in your diary.
What happens if you don't apply?
A council can take enforcement action against unauthorised change of use. In towns over 20,000, you also can't truthfully declare planning compliance when you register, and there's no grace period. Sorting it out early, ideally through Form 24 if you're already letting, is far cheaper than unwinding listings with bookings on them.
Not sure where you stand?
If you're a landlord in Louth, Meath or along the Boyne and would rather hand the bookings and the day-to-day to someone else, that's what Sos Stays does, on a commission-only basis with no set-up fee. We can help you get your information in order, but the planning and registration declarations are yours to make, so a planning consultant or solicitor is worth a call for anything borderline.
Latest updates and sources (checked 24 October 2026)
The Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill was published on 6 October 2026 and is still going through the Oireachtas. The National Planning Statement on short-term letting was published in draft on 17 June 2026 and is still a draft as far as we can find. This is general information, not legal advice. We'll update this page as things change.
- Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment: Short-term letting in Ireland
- Department of Housing circular: Planning and Development (Short Term Letting) (Change of Use) Regulations 2026
- Planning and Development Act 2000, section 3A (revised)
- S.I. No. 130 of 2026, Irish Statute Book
- Residential Tenancies Board: Rental law changes from 1 March 2026
- Citizens Information: Renting your property for short-term lets
- Citizens Information: Planning permission
- Department of Housing: Draft Short Term Letting National Planning Statement
- Fáilte Ireland: Short-term letting register
- Short-term Letting and Tourism Bill 2026 (No. 101 of 2026), as initiated, Houses of the Oireachtas