Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Sustainable Urban Housing: Design Standards for New Apartments were issued in 2018 under section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. In accordance with the guidelines, ‘shared accommodation’ (also known as ‘co-living’) was identified as a distinct format within the overall residential sector, which, due to its specific nature, had a limited, ‘niche’ role to play in the provision of the new residential accommodation within Ireland’s cities.

The shared accommodation/co-living format comprises professionally managed rental accommodation, where individual rooms are rented within a commercial development that includes access to shared or communal facilities and amenities. It does not relate to established forms of accommodation with a shared or communal element including hotels, aparthotels, hostels, student accommodation or house or flat share arrangements. If a dispute arises as to whether a purported licence in a co-living dwelling is in fact a tenancy, the RTB can determine the matter.

On being appointed Minister in 2020, I undertook a review of co-living development as provided for in the then 2018 Apartment Guidelines. I concluded that given the scale, location and potential impact of co-living development permitted at that stage, that there were sufficient shared accommodation / co-living units either permitted or subject to consideration within the planning system to demonstrate and prove the co-living concept, without impacting housing provision generally.

Updated Sustainable Urban Housing: Design Standards for New Apartments issued in December 2020 to reflect this decision and these changes have been carried through to the most recent version of the Guidelines issued in July 2023.

Accordingly, it is a Specific Planning Policy Requirement (SPPR) of the guidelines that shared accommodation/co-living developments will not generally be permitted. In this regard SPPR 7 states:

There shall be a presumption against granting planning permission for shared accommodation/co-living development unless the proposed development is required to meet specific demand identified by a local planning authority further to a Housing Need and Demand Assessment (HNDA) process.

‘Co-living’ is not defined within the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended). Short term letting is a defined term in section 3A of the Planning and Development Act 2000. Under this section, "short term letting" means the letting of a house or part of a house for any period not exceeding 14 days, and includes a licence that permits the licensee to enter and reside in the house or part thereof for any such period in consideration of the making by any person (whether or not the licensee) of a payment or payments to the licensor.