Required Apartment Size

ShaneC93

I'm looking into buying & refurbishing a Studio apartment in central Dublin to let as an investment property. What I'm trying to figure out is what the minimum. size requirements are? and if it differs based on the age of the property?

I've found some sites that say it's 45 sq.m, some say 40 sq.m and some that don't mention any restrictions at all. I've been looking at a place that is 38-39 sq.m so it would be good to know if that size specifically is allowed.

I've seen some studio rentals on Daft that look no larger than 25-30 sq.m but it's hard to know with the market these days if that's just landlords chancing their luck..

Thanks.

GGTrek

ShaneC93 wrote: »

I'm looking into buying & refurbishing a Studio apartment in central Dublin to let as an investment property. What I'm trying to figure out is what the minimum. size requirements are? and if it differs based on the age of the property?

I've found some sites that say it's 45 sq.m, some say 40 sq.m and some that don't mention any restrictions at all. I've been looking at a place that is 38-39 sq.m so it would be good to know if that size specifically is allowed.

I've seen some studio rentals on Daft that look no larger than 25-30 sq.m but it's hard to know with the market these days if that's just landlords chancing their luck..

Thanks.

There is no exact definition of the minimum livable size in Irish statutes. There is a proposal to change this at the Oireachtas, but it has been stuck since Jan 2018:
https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/bills/bill/2018/11/?tab=bill-texthttps://www.oireachtas.ie/en/bills/bill/2018/11/?tab=bill-text


If you look at the bill you will quickly understand that the maximum number of people allowed in a studio would be TWO. The sqm criteria starts from 10sqm, so unless you want to become a slumlord it is a really low threshold. In my opinion if you want happy tenants in Dublin you have to give at least 15sqm of space for each tenant and you state the maximum number of occupiers in the tenancy agreement (some tenants will try to invite "friends" and breach all the overcrowding legislation).



The most important consideration are avoiding the overcrowding definition of Section 63 of the Housing Act 1966:
" 63.—A house shall for the purposes of this Act be deemed to be overcrowded at any time when the number of persons ordinarily sleeping in the house and the number of rooms therein either—

(a) are such that any two of those persons, being persons of ten years of age or more of opposite sexes and not being persons living together as husband and wife, must sleep in the same room, or

(b) are such that the free air space in any room used as a sleeping apartment, for any person is less than four hundred cubic feet (the height of the room, if it exceeds eight feet, being taken to be eight feet, for the purpose of calculating free air space),

and “overcrowding” shall be construed accordingly."


Which clearly depends on the number of occupants vs the size of the sleeping room. So even a 25sqm studio could be fine for one or two occupants.



Since you are refurbishing you should also consider the Housing Standards for Rented Accommodation 2008, 2009 and 2017:
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2008/si/534/made/en/print
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2009/si/462/made/en/print
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2017/si/17/made/en/print


Hope this helps.

Gumbo

If it’s an existing apartment with valid planning and fire safety approval then it’s ok. It would have complied at the time of its construction.