Supply is up, rents are down - but there's still a frantic scramble on this week for all kinds of student accommodation that's safe, comfortable - and affordable. Frances O'Rourkeand Grainne Fallerreport
'LARGE single room, easygoing family home - no curfews!" reads the entry on the UCD students' union accommodation list. Another boasts "vacancy for male student . . . open to male of any faith/belief" (it's owned by the Methodist church).
Supply of accommodation to let is up all around the country and rents are falling, so this should be a better year than most for students and their parents tracking down a bed for the college year. And there's no need to queue outside newspaper offices any more, with most accommodation searches being done online.
But it's still a stressful time: frantic students and their parents have been hitting the phones and websites since CAO results came out 10 days ago, in the annual scramble for a place to live in the college year ahead.
A new generation of students will learn that "would suit professionals" is code for "no students need apply"; a new generation of parents will realise that despite falling rents, it costs a minimum of around €400 a month for a bed in the capital.
If you live in a city near the college your child will attend, read the rest of this and be grateful: all country-based parents have to face up to this major worry and expense, while only a handful of city students are given the choice of leaving home to study.
Don't panic if you haven't anything to live in yet, say both student officers like USI welfare officer Anthony Muldoon and letting agents like Igor Fleming, managing director of dublinlettings.com.
"The supply of accommodation in Dublin has doubled in the past year and rents have dropped 10 to 15 per cent," says Fleming. He reckons that at least in Dublin, they will either stay static - or perhaps fall again, after the September student rush is over.
Some parents with enough money may opt to buy a house or a flat if they have several children likely to go to college in one city; others will want their first year students to go into digs, still available and averaging from around €90 to €120 a week for bed (and breakfast, perhaps even an evening meal) in a shared room in a family house, for five days a week.
Campus accommodation is an option for a minority, especially in Dublin - in UCD, there are 2,454 on-campus places and some 23,000 students, of whom about half come from outside Dublin. The places are reserved mainly for first and fourth year students. There is some private campus-style accommodation, costing around €4,000 a year, but much less in Dublin than elsewhere. Others - probably the majority - will be looking for private rented accommodation in houses or flats: the biggest single problem they face (after cost) is a widespread stigma against renting to students.
Everything is harder for first-year students, unless they have secured campus or campus-style accommodation: it is difficult to get a head start on this annual accommodation search, although some start as soon as they get their Leaving Cert results early in August, gambling that the points for their preferred courses won't change.
As first-time tenants, first-years won't have references that might persuade a reluctant landlord to take a chance on them. This means they can end up competing for the flats at the grottiest end of the market.
The problem, says UCD student accommodation officer Danielle Pender "is selling students to landlords. Students are competing against young professionals and recent graduates: landlords are put off by rumours of parties and students wrecking the joint".
She maintains that this sort of behaviour is rare, and that students' respect for their accommodation has grown along with improving standards in apartments and houses for rent. There are still some "horrible bedsits out there" she says but advises that students should stay positive and keep on looking for something they'll be happy with.
(Landlords are also put off by the fact that most students want a nine-month lease, not a year's, leaving a void three months every summer).
Pender advises students to abide by the terms of their lease and not to give into the temptation to sublet space on their floor.
Digs - where you get accommodation in a family home, and at least breakfast if not all your meals - is still a popular option, at least with parents of first-years. And rumours of the old-fashioned dragon landlady are as inaccurate as the stereotype of the wild student, says Pender. Nowadays, many are young families who need a bit of help with their mortgage: "you're in a home and you're treated with respect".
Is buying a good option, assuming you are lucky enough to be able to find finance ? One Co Meath family (see story below) who paid €220,000 for a house near DCU in 2001, believe that it was: seven years later, their children have graduated and moved on, but they are still finding it easy to rent the property and believe it has saved them money in the long term.
Sherry FitzGerald managing director Michael Grehan says what influences the people who do buy accommodation for their children is first of all, making sure that their children have secure accommodation; second, that it's better to pay money out on a mortgage than to pay rent; and third, many parents will think of the property as a bolthole for the future for themselves.
It's usually a long-term investment that could servde three or more children over a 10 to 12-year period.
The problem of course is finding something affordable that will also be useful to a number of children who may go to different colleges in, say, Dublin. Grehan reckons that it's worth looking at apartments in Dublin's docklands, where a two-bed (which would accommodate four students) might cost around €350,00 to €400,000.
"You're not going to lose on that in the long-term, if you're going to have continuing family accommodation needs - and iot's a good letting m arket." And not only is docklands on good transport links around the city, it's central and handy for a student's all-important social life.
