Is Airbnb still profitable in Dublin?

Is Airbnb still profitable in Dublin now?

Yes, Airbnb can still be profitable in Dublin today, but buying a normal residential property specifically to run it full-time on Airbnb has become a difficult investment case.

The demand is certainly there. AirDNA currently tracks 4,479 active Dublin short-term rentals, with 65% average occupancy, a $201 average daily rate and $39,900 in trailing annual revenue per active listing. At recent exchange rates, that works out at roughly €34,000 of gross annual revenue.

The problem appears when we compare that figure with ordinary rent. Daft's latest rental report puts the average asking rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Dublin at €2,634 a month, or about €31,600 a year. These datasets cover different mixes of properties, so we cannot compare them euro for euro. Still, the gap is revealing. A typical short-term rental only needs a few thousand euros of extra cleaning, utilities, platform fees, furnishing, maintenance and management costs before its apparent revenue advantage disappears.

Planning rules then narrow the opportunity further. A Dublin resident can rent rooms in a principal home and can rent the entire home for limited periods while away. A separate investment property generally needs planning permission for short-term use, and current policy is restrictive.

So Airbnb profitability in Dublin depends heavily on what the owner actually has. An established short-term rental with secure planning status can still be a strong business. Home sharing can also generate attractive extra income. A new investor buying an ordinary apartment and assuming Airbnb will automatically produce better returns than a tenant has a much weaker proposition.

Dublin Airbnb question	Current picture	What it means for profitability
Is tourist demand strong?	Yes	Good properties can still fill nights
Is Airbnb revenue high?	Around €34,000 gross on AirDNA's market average	Decent, but far from pure profit
Are long-term Dublin rents high?	Around €31,600 a year for the average advertised two-bed	Airbnb has a strong alternative to beat
Can any investment home become an Airbnb?	Generally no without the right planning status	Entry is heavily constrained
Can established legal Airbnbs still work?	Yes	Scarcity may actually help them

Why do Dublin Airbnb revenue numbers look so good right now?

Dublin Airbnb revenue per active listing has jumped dramatically, but the underlying short-term rental market has improved far less than the 124.5% headline suggests.

AirDNA says annual revenue per active listing is currently $39,900, up 124.5% year on year. If we stopped there, Dublin would look like one of the great Airbnb booms in Europe.

The other AirDNA numbers tell a different story. Occupancy rose 6.9%, average daily rates fell 3.2%, and RevPAR increased only 2.2%. A market where the amount earned per available night rises 2.2% clearly has not experienced a 124.5% improvement in the underlying economics of each rentable night.

What changed most was supply. Active listings fell 47.4%, from an implied level of roughly 8,500 a year earlier to 4,479 now.

We can roughly reconstruct the effect. A 124.5% rise to $39,900 implies that the previous average annual revenue was around $17,800. Multiplying that by the implied former listing count gives about $151 million in annual market revenue. Today's 4,479 listings at $39,900 give roughly $179 million.

We're approximating here because listings enter and leave throughout the year. Even so, the exercise suggests implied total revenue may have grown by roughly 18% while reported revenue per active listing more than doubled.

AirDNA metric	Current reading	YoY change	What actually changed
Active listings	4,479	-47.4%	Supply collapsed
Occupancy	65%	+6.9%	Demand per available listing improved
Average daily rate	$201	-3.2%	Pricing softened slightly
RevPAR	$130	+2.2%	Core nightly economics improved modestly
Annual revenue/listing	$39,900	+124.5%	Heavily affected by the changing listing pool

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Can you legally run a full-time Airbnb in Dublin?

Usually not from an ordinary investment home unless the property has the required planning permission for short-term use.

Dublin City Council's current guidance is quite clear. If a house or apartment is the owner's principal private residence, the owner can rent the entire property on a short-term basis while temporarily away for up to 90 cumulative days in a calendar year. Going beyond 90 days requires planning permission.

A separate investment property gets less flexibility. The 90-day exemption does not apply where the home is not the owner's principal residence, so short-term letting generally requires change-of-use permission.

Home sharing is treated more generously. Renting a room or rooms inside the principal residence can continue without the same planning-permission requirement.

That distinction completely changes how we should analyse Dublin Airbnb investment. Someone with a spare bedroom already owns the housing asset and can generate additional income from unused space. Someone buying a €500,000 apartment solely for tourists first needs a legally workable route to operate the business.

For a new investor, planning status should therefore be checked before revenue estimates, interior design, cleaning costs or expected occupancy. Without that right, the rest of the Airbnb model is largely academic.

Is Dublin actually approving new Airbnb investment properties?

Getting permission for a dedicated Dublin Airbnb looks difficult today, especially when an existing residential property would effectively be removed from normal housing supply.

One recent case gives us a much clearer answer than a generic reading of planning policy. Olympia Real Estate sought retention permission for ten apartments near Dublin Castle that were being offered through Airbnb and Booking.com as Dublin Castle Suites. On busy weekends, individual units were reportedly earning as much as €350 a night.

Dublin City Council refused permission. The owner appealed, and An Coimisiún Pleanála also rejected the retention application. The planning commission pointed to Dublin's development plan, which contains a general presumption against dedicated short-term tourist accommodation because of its effect on housing availability.

These were central apartments beside some of Dublin's busiest tourist areas, with obvious visitor demand and substantial commercial revenue. Even that did not overcome the housing-policy issue.

The national direction is similarly restrictive. The government's draft planning statement for short-term lets puts much greater emphasis on protecting residential supply in larger towns and cities. Dublin sits squarely inside the part of the country where new residential-to-tourist conversions face the greatest scrutiny.

Existing operators with longstanding use may have a better case under emerging policy, particularly where short-term use has continued for years without enforcement problems.

Thinking of renting it out? Tell us where and we'll tell you what to watch for.

Will Ireland's new short-term rental register make Dublin Airbnb harder?

Yes, the coming national short-term rental register should make informal or non-compliant Dublin Airbnb operations much harder to hide.

The government's current timetable has the national register opening from December, with short-term accommodation providers expected to register units let for stays of up to 21 nights. Fáilte Ireland will operate the system.

One nuance has become important lately: Fáilte Ireland currently says registration is not yet open because the necessary legislation still has to complete its passage. So the timetable is clear, but the live registration system does not exist yet.

Once the regime starts, each registered unit will receive a number that must appear on its online listings. Hosts will also make legal declarations covering obligations such as planning and fire-safety compliance.

Platforms will have much more responsibility too. Government guidance says they will have to facilitate registration-number display, perform checks, act on orders concerning invalid listings and transmit standardised information such as nights rented, guest numbers, listing URLs and registration numbers.

Authorities should therefore get a much clearer view of which properties are being rented and how often, leaving less room for operators whose economics depend on weak enforcement.

Is there still enough tourist demand for Dublin Airbnbs?

Yes, Dublin still has more than enough visitor demand to support a healthy short-term rental market.

AirDNA's current 65% occupancy rate is already respectable, especially because it measures booked nights out of nights actually made available. Its seasonality score of 74 out of 100 also suggests Dublin demand is spread reasonably well across the year rather than surviving on a short summer peak.

Hotels confirm the strength of the market from another angle. Savills found Dublin hotel occupancy running at 84.1% over the latest 12-month period it studied, compared with 71.7% across Europe. Dublin hotels exceeded 90% occupancy on 146 nights. In other words, the city was effectively full on around four nights out of every ten.

Dublin Airport has remained busy as well. Just under 18 million passengers passed through during the first half of 2026, up 6% year on year. June alone handled more than 3.6 million passengers, and the airport broke its all-time daily passenger record several times during that month.

These three measures point in the same direction: Dublin's Airbnb challenge currently comes from property economics and regulation, not weak visitor demand.

Dublin demand measure	Latest useful reading	What we learn
Short-term rental occupancy	65%	STR demand remains healthy
Hotel occupancy	84.1%	Dublin accommodation is heavily used
Hotel nights above 90% occupancy	146 in one year	Capacity gets very tight surprisingly often
Airport passengers, first half of 2026	Just under 18m	+6% YoY
AirDNA seasonality score	74/100	Demand is reasonably spread across the year

Rental rules keep changing in Ireland. Ask us about your case.

Why are there so many fewer Dublin Airbnbs now?

Dublin has lost almost half of its active short-term rental listings in a year, and the decline is large enough to change how we read the whole market.

AirDNA currently tracks 4,479 listings, down 47.4% year on year. At the same time, occupancy increased and broader tourism indicators remained strong.

Regulation probably explains part of the contraction, although we cannot responsibly attribute the entire 47.4% fall to planning enforcement. Properties can disappear from AirDNA's active pool because owners switch rental strategies, restrict calendars, change platforms or stop operating for unrelated reasons.

Long-term renting has also become increasingly tempting. Daft says the average advertised Dublin two-bedroom rent is now €2,634 a month, up 6.5% year on year. At the beginning of August, fewer than 1,150 homes were available to rent in Dublin, 18% fewer than a year earlier.

Owners therefore have an unusually strong conventional rental alternative, while the remaining Airbnb pool may increasingly contain better-located, more professional or more legally secure listings. That helps explain why today's average Airbnb revenue looks stronger even though the wider market has not improved by anything close to the same amount.

How much does a Dublin Airbnb make compared with long-term rent?

AirDNA currently puts average Dublin short-term rental revenue at about $39,900 a year, roughly €34,000 at recent exchange rates, which is only modestly above Dublin's current long-term rent benchmark.

The same AirDNA dataset shows a $201 average daily rate and 65% occupancy. Those figures may initially look inconsistent with $39,900 of annual revenue because 365 days multiplied by 65% and $201 produces nearly $47,700. AirDNA calculates occupancy only across nights actually made available, and many Dublin hosts do not open their calendars for the entire year.

The property mix also matters. About 62.8% of Dublin listings are one-bedroom properties. AirDNA says 60.6% are entire homes, while 38.3% are private rooms. The citywide average therefore mixes spare bedrooms, apartments, larger tourist units and very different calendar lengths.

Daft's latest report puts the average Dublin two-bedroom apartment at €2,634 a month, or €31,608 annually.

These are different property samples, so the roughly €2,000-€3,000 difference cannot be treated as a precise Airbnb premium. The scale is still useful. Short-term hosts also pay for utilities, turnover, linen, cleaning, furnishing, more frequent wear and platform distribution, while professional management can add another substantial cost.

A property earning €50,000 from tourists clearly has a different story. Around €34,000, the advantage over a strong conventional tenancy looks much less impressive.

Revenue benchmark	Approximate annual gross income	Practical reading
AirDNA Dublin STR average	~€34,000	Before short-term operating expenses
Dublin two-bed asking rent	€31,608	Strong conventional-rental benchmark
Airbnb at €40,000	€40,000	Enough premium to become interesting
Airbnb at €50,000	€50,000	Much stronger case for accepting extra work and costs

Are Dublin property prices too high for Airbnb to give a good yield?

Dublin purchase prices make average Airbnb revenue look fairly ordinary once we express it as a return on the property itself.

The CSO's latest residential price data puts the median Dublin dwelling at €500,000 over the preceding 12 months. Dublin City was slightly lower at €480,000. Prices in Dublin were still 4.6% higher year on year.

Put roughly €34,000 of Airbnb revenue against a €500,000 purchase price and the gross revenue yield comes to about 6.8%. Using the €480,000 Dublin City median takes it to around 7.1%.

Those are revenue yields before virtually every cost that separates turnover from profit.

Financing tightens the calculation further. Central Bank mortgage rules keep the normal buy-to-let loan-to-value cap at 70%, meaning a buyer generally needs at least 30% equity. A €500,000 purchase therefore implies around €150,000 of deposit before stamp duty, legal costs, furnishing and cash reserves.

The Central Bank's latest average rate for new Irish mortgages was 3.49%, although individual buy-to-let pricing can be higher and must be checked separately.

Meanwhile, the latest Daft data implies a gross asking-rent yield of around 6.3% if we compare the €31,608 Dublin two-bed annual rent with a €500,000 purchase. The comparison is rough, but the two strategies start surprisingly close together.

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Does Dublin's 90-day Airbnb rule still leave room to make money?

Yes, Dublin's 90-day rule can produce useful extra income for someone renting a principal home, while home sharing can be even more flexible.

At AirDNA's current average daily rate of about $201, or roughly €173, selling 90 nights would generate around €15,600 in gross booking revenue. That is an optimistic illustration because it assumes all 90 nights sell around the citywide ADR.

For someone who already owns and lives in the home, €10,000-€15,000 of extra gross income can be meaningful. The property was purchased primarily as a residence, so Airbnb is monetising periods when the home would otherwise sit unused.

Renting rooms inside a principal residence offers more flexibility because Dublin City Council allows home sharing without the same 90-day whole-home ceiling.

Hosts should still account for tax correctly. Revenue explicitly says accommodation booked for short tourist stays through online platforms does not qualify for Rent-a-Room Relief. Airbnb income from a spare bedroom cannot simply be treated like tax-free qualifying long-term room rent.

How much do Airbnb fees and Irish taxes eat into Dublin profits?

Airbnb fees and Irish taxes can materially reduce Dublin host profit, especially when gross short-term revenue only slightly beats normal rent.

Airbnb is moving many hosts toward its single host-fee structure. Hosts using property-management software who have not already switched are due to move to a 15.5% host service fee in October.

That percentage sounds like a sudden 12-point increase compared with the familiar 3% host fee, but Airbnb is also changing how the guest fee is presented. Its own example shows a host raising the listed price from 100 to 115 and still receiving about 97 after the single fee. The guest's total price remains broadly similar because the former guest-side service charge is being folded into the host's displayed price.

Hosts who reprice successfully may therefore preserve much of their payout. Hosts who fail to adjust prices will feel the change much more directly.

Irish tax treatment brings another layer. Revenue says short-term guest accommodation does not qualify for Rent-a-Room Relief. Depending on how the activity is organised, Airbnb income can be taxed as other income or as trading income.

Revenue does allow relevant expenses such as Airbnb commission, cleaning and a reasonable proportion of utilities to be deducted when calculating taxable Airbnb income.

Successful operators also need to watch VAT. Short-term guest accommodation is a taxable activity, and Ireland's normal VAT registration threshold for service businesses is €42,500 in annual turnover.

That threshold is close enough to AirDNA's Dublin revenue average that a strong single property or multi-unit operation can reach it fairly quickly.

Cost or tax issue	Dublin Airbnb effect
Airbnb service fee	Can materially affect payout if pricing is not adjusted
Cleaning and linen	Repeated turnover makes these recurring costs
Utilities	Normally paid by the short-term host
Rent-a-Room Relief	Short tourist stays do not qualify
Airbnb-related expenses	Certain genuine costs can be deducted for tax
VAT	Can become relevant once taxable service turnover crosses the threshold

Will new Dublin hotels hurt Airbnb profits?

New hotel supply should put some pressure on Dublin Airbnb pricing over the next few years, although today's visitor demand is strong enough to absorb a lot of new rooms.

Fáilte Ireland's latest hotel-investment work counted 12,750 tourist-accommodation bed places under construction nationally at the end of the third quarter of 2025. About 71% were in Dublin.

That works out at roughly 9,000 Dublin bed places in the construction pipeline at that point.

The timing is important. The same market has recently recorded 84.1% hotel occupancy and 146 nights above 90%. Dublin clearly has room for additional visitor accommodation right now.

But anyone buying an Airbnb today owns an asset for years, not months. Around 9,000 additional bed places can gradually reduce the severe accommodation shortages that currently allow hotels and short-term rentals to charge very high prices on busy dates.

Airbnb still has advantages for families, groups, kitchens and longer stays. A good two-bedroom apartment is not interchangeable with a standard hotel room. Generic studios and one-bedroom units have more direct hotel competition.

For investment underwriting, we would be cautious about assuming that today's most expensive compression-night rates will remain just as easy to achieve once more Dublin accommodation opens.

What kind of Dublin Airbnb is still worth owning?

The best Dublin Airbnb today is one with secure short-term-use rights and revenue comfortably above what the same property could earn from a normal tenant.

Established dedicated short-term rentals with defensible planning status sit in the strongest position. New competing supply is hard to create, while visitor demand remains high. Scarcity can therefore help the operators who are actually allowed to stay in the market.

Owner-occupied home sharing also makes sense in many cases. The host already needs the property as a home and earns money from spare capacity without putting several hundred thousand euros into a separate Airbnb asset.

Occasional whole-home rental can work along similar lines. Someone travelling for several weeks can turn an otherwise empty residence into perhaps several thousand euros of extra annual income.

The weakest setup is a newly purchased ordinary residential apartment where the investment case assumes full-time Airbnb permission will somehow follow. That approach combines Dublin's high acquisition prices with the part of the regulatory system that gives us the least confidence.

Location still counts, of course. Properties around the city centre, major tourist areas, transport links and event venues can command much more than Dublin-wide averages. But a brilliant location cannot compensate for an operation that has no secure legal route to continue.

How much Airbnb revenue would make a €500,000 Dublin property worth it?

We would want a €500,000 Dublin Airbnb to earn well above €40,000 a year before the short-term strategy starts looking clearly more compelling than an ordinary rental.

At €34,000 of gross Airbnb revenue, the gross return on a €500,000 purchase is around 6.8%. That already sits close to what a strong Dublin long-term rental can produce before costs.

At €40,000, gross Airbnb yield reaches 8%. The owner now has around €8,400 more gross revenue than the latest €31,608 two-bedroom rental benchmark. That gives some room for short-term expenses, although the margin is still not huge.

At €45,000, the equation starts looking more convincing. Gross yield reaches 9%, and Airbnb revenue exceeds the rental benchmark by roughly €13,400.

At €50,000, the gross yield is 10%. That level gives the operator a much healthier cushion for platform costs, utilities, maintenance and additional management.

A legally secure Dublin property consistently capable of €50,000-plus gross revenue can still make a strong Airbnb investment. A €500,000 property expected to produce around €34,000 would leave us much less interested.

Annual Airbnb revenue	Gross yield on €500k	Premium vs €31,608 long-term rent	Our view
€30,000	6.0%	-€1,608	Poor Airbnb case
€34,000	6.8%	+€2,392	Too thin for comfort
€40,000	8.0%	+€8,392	Starts becoming viable
€45,000	9.0%	+€13,392	Much more convincing
€50,000	10.0%	+€18,392	Strong if legally secure
€55,000	11.0%	+€23,392	Very attractive on gross economics

So, is Airbnb still profitable in Dublin?

Yes, Airbnb is still profitable in Dublin, but we would only call it an attractive property investment today when the short-term use is legally secure and the expected revenue sits comfortably above normal Dublin rent.

Visitor demand gives us plenty of confidence. AirDNA currently reports 65% occupancy, Dublin hotels are running at unusually high utilisation, and airport passenger traffic is still growing. Good Dublin accommodation clearly has customers.

The caution comes from everything around that demand.

Current AirDNA data shows active short-term rental supply down 47.4% in one year. As seen above, that huge contraction also helps explain why average revenue per surviving listing appears to have increased 124.5% even though RevPAR rose only 2.2%. We would not use that headline growth rate as evidence that a newly purchased apartment can suddenly earn twice what it could a year ago.

Long-term renting also sets a surprisingly high bar. The latest Daft figure of €2,634 a month for a Dublin two-bedroom means roughly €31,600 of annual asking rent before the extra work and running costs associated with tourists. Dublin rental availability is also down 18% year on year, so landlords currently have no shortage of conventional tenant demand.

Planning is ultimately what separates the strongest Airbnb opportunities from the weakest ones. Home sharing remains relatively accessible. Existing properties with secure short-term-use rights can benefit from scarce supply. A normal investment property generally needs permission for dedicated short-term use, while Dublin planning policy currently gives us little reason to assume that permission will be easy to obtain.

We would therefore separate the market very clearly. Someone who already owns a legal, well-performing Dublin Airbnb can still have an excellent asset. A homeowner renting spare rooms or occasionally renting the whole home can also make worthwhile extra income. For someone preparing to spend around €500,000 on an ordinary apartment purely to create a new full-time Airbnb, the numbers and the rules are much less appealing.

At roughly €34,000 of expected gross revenue, we would prefer the simplicity and legal certainty of a strong long-term tenancy. Around €45,000 starts to change the conversation. At €50,000 or more, a legally secure short-term rental can once again justify the additional costs and work.

Airbnb still works in Dublin. The easy version of the investment has largely disappeared.

Fact-checked and reviewed by our local expert

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Anthony McCann 🇮🇪

Co-Founder, FindQo.ie

Anthony McCann co-founded FindQo.ie to make property searching easier and smarter in Dublin. He recognised the growing demand for a modern solution in the city’s busy housing market. FindQo.ie helps Dubliners find places to buy, rent, or share—whether it’s a home or commercial space. The platform offers a smooth and helpful experience for anyone looking to move in Dublin.

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