Homeowners have been urged to lease out spare rooms for the upcoming academic year as tens of thousands of students begin to seek accommodation after the publication of the Leaving Cert results.
The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) said there had never been such a shortage of student accommodation across the country. It is encouraging people to take advantage of the rent-a-room scheme, which allows homeowners to let a room in their house and earn up €12,000 a year free of tax.
"Leasing out spare rooms is a very straightforward process, especially for parents whose children have flown the nest, or who are attending college on the other side of the country," Union of Students in Ireland president Annie Hoey said.
Dublin Institute of Technology’s annual cost of living report for this year found that students living away from home can expect to pay about€11,000 over the academic year, with rent accounting for €2,925 of that sum.
Nationwide average
The figure is a nationwide average with students in Dublin paying anywhere from €350 a month for a shared room to more than €1,000 for a one-bedroom unit in Dublin 2.
Third-level institutions have implemented their own networks to put students in contact with offers of accommodation in an attempt to lessen the student housing crisis.
Trinity College Dublin has been using its internal system, which features a database of potential lodgings and host family opportunities.
University College Dublin, DIT, NUI Galway and some other institutions use a system know as Studentpad. Homeowners who sign up with the college, following certain terms and conditions, are allowed to post an advert.
The adverts range in price depending on the area and whether utilities are included but prices are per week. In DIT’s Studentpad, for example, the average prices range from about €80 to €165 a week, excluding utilities, to about €100 to €185, including utilities.
For Trinity, both the student and the host family sign an agreement outlining the responsibilities of both parties. In UCD a licence to reside is signed to give reassurances to the tenant and the homeowner.
Good option
TCD student union president Kieran McNulty said, “Digs are a good option and students get a lot out of them.”
UCD student union president Conor Viscardi said, given UCD's location in south Dublin, students may feel it necessary to use digs as they are a "cheaper alternative" to houses, which have become expensive.
The use of the rent-a-room scheme has been steadily increasing from 2,300 households in 2004 to 5,710 in 2014.
Brian Gormley, head of Campus Life in DIT, said he expected the trend to continue. "We've certainly persuaded families and homeowners to go for it . . . [Students find] they are happier with the living arrangements."
Dr Gormley also said living with host families is cheaper than renting because utilities, wifi and meals are usually included in the cost, and students find that they have more freedom than they thought they would have moving into digs.
CASE STUDY
Finding a home: Rents are high and rooms for students few and far between
Oisín Gilmartin from Sligo is going into the second year of his science course in Trinity College Dublin.
He and his mother Gráinne drove down from Sligo yesterday to view places for him to stay when he returns to college next month.
Ahead of the trip, Oisín said he had sent emails to as many as 40 potential places that he would consider calling home for the college year but “you just wouldn’t get replies”.
“You might get between two and five viewings when we come up, it’s just not working out at all and it’s just a proper nightmare in general,” he said.
Oisín started out looking for place for less than €600 a month but soon realised that was becoming less and less likely. “As it has gone on it’s a bit more take what you can get so literally anything from house-share, flat, apartments anything I could get at this stage I’d take it.”
He and his mother were looking at finding a host family. Failing that, he said there was no real contingency plan. “I hope it doesn’t come to that; commuting from Sligo is not exactly feasible.”
Galway native Ciara Hurley is about to start a masters in International and European Business law at Trinity College Dublin . She struggled to find a place to stay that was affordable, eventually settling for private student accommodation in Phibsborough.
Ciara did her undergrad in Belfast and she found the experience there quite good as “it was great, there was loads of housing available and the housing was good quality”.
Ciara also says it was far cheaper than anything she has looked at in Dublin paying £240 (€277.60) a month last year.
Asked about her experience in Dublin, Ciara said: “It’s horrendous. Even with several sharing you’d still be looking at €500 to €600 each.”½½
She said the accommodation she has booked in Phibsborough will cost her €10,000 for the year. “I had to take it, it was either that or commute 200 kilometres.”
