There are almost three times as many Airbnb rentals as long-term rentals available in towns and college towns across Ireland, as thousands of students face a desperate scramble to find accommodation, the UK can reveal. Irish Mail on Sunday.
Student union leaders at universities and colleges across the country reported unprecedented demand for housing just two weeks before term.
In some cases, commuting students rely on college-run food banks because they cannot afford the rising cost of fuel.
And in places where housing is limited, students are shut out of the market or forced to pay huge sums of money for basic living space.
National survey of all state-funded universities nationwide and remaining computer science schools finds there are nearly three times more expensive short-term rentals available on Airbnb than longer-term traditional accommodations term and shared.
A total of 2,653 properties in towns and college towns are currently available on Airbnb, compared to just 960 properties and shared rooms available on property and rental website Daft.ie.
The problem is particularly acute in Galway, which hosts more than 33,000 students. Currently, Airbnb units in the city outnumber long-term rentals by more than six to one.
Sligo had no house rentals available and only eight shared properties against 121 Airbnb spaces.
Similarly, in the North West, Letterkenny had just six homes for rent, while the town had 98 properties listed on Airbnb.
The chronic shortage of suitable student accommodation has strained students as they prepare to start or return to college for their first full academic year since the pandemic.
Student union leaders who spoke to the MoS insisted the shortage was ‘the worst we have ever seen’.
Imogen O’Flaherty Falconer, vice president and head of welfare and equality at the NUI Galway Student Union, warned that the situation will only get worse when freshmen arrive at the end of September.
She told the MoS: ‘Students who have lived here for four years also cannot find accommodation.
“I know a girl who had to get a studio for €1,200 because it was the only viewing she could get after six months of searching.
“I know three girls in a room and they all pay €570 each, so it’s over €1,600 for a room. One of my roommates lived in a hostel for six months.
She said after two years of blended learning, the full effect of the crisis is now being laid bare.
And she added that many students who cannot find accommodation have asked for video conferencing to continue so they can live at home.
“Students have asked that the taped lectures continue because there will be so many people who will have to postpone the year or take a year off because they can’t find accommodation,” Imogen said.
“Now that everyone is back on campus, we can really see the impact.”
University of Limerick student union president Maeve Rutledge said private accommodation in Ireland’s third-largest city had been “full since February”.
“It’s getting earlier and earlier for students to try to tie up the houses,” she added.
“It’s not just incoming students who struggle to find accommodation – it’s Erasmus students, postgraduates or returning students – and usually you wouldn’t find it.
“A lot of returning students in older years struggle to find accommodation.
“There’s the Travelodge and Kilmurry Lodge Hotel nearby which offered student rates last year, but I heard they were already full for the semester.”
Ms Rutledge said the union had a good working relationship with university authorities, but described their plans to buy 80 new beds for the next academic year as “a drop in the bucket”.
She added that the union has also been forced to offer long trips to towns outside the city for students desperate to find accommodation.
“We need to encourage students to look at places like Ennis, which is 45 minutes away, or even the city of Tipperary [40-minute drive]but again, there are not many direct transport lines between these cities,” she said.
‘Every morning there is a student begging me, and I wish I could go out and see the houses for themselves, but I can’t.
“I didn’t even find a place until last week and one of our own academic officers is homeless.”
In Cork, the main issue for students is affordability. Alannah O’Connor, student union welfare officer at University College Cork, told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘The beds are there – but the prices are sky high.
She said her office receives calls from more than “60 students a day” about housing.
She added: “Many of our purpose-built private homes cost upwards of €900 per month, while a full-rate SUSI maintenance grant is only €625.
“They know they can make it pay and they know people will pay for it because people need a roof over their heads.”
Ms O’Connor said houses and shared accommodation on Daft.ie are “sold within minutes” and that while UCC-owned student accommodation is cheaper than private rentals, it is “not in no affordable cases”.
She added that many cash-strapped students rely on college-run food banks which have “exploded in recent years.”
Some students have to commute up to “two hours a day” to come to college – often having to sacrifice food for fuel.
In Dublin, the housing crisis in the capital is also crowding out many students from the rental market.
Molly Greenbough, president of the student union at University College Dublin, said that “students are competing against professionals with higher disposable incomes” and that, with prices approaching €1,500, they risk “s ‘expand beyond a price they are comfortable with’.
She told the MoS: ‘In our opinion, this is the worst year on record, but the crisis is getting worse every year.
“It is important to emphasize that this is not a new crisis, it is the worst, but it has been going on for almost a decade.
The UCD student president said “failure of successive governments” is at the root of the problem and existing programs fall far short of existing demand.
This week, Higher Education Minister Simon Harris called on landlords to let spare rooms to students under the Room Rental Scheme, which allows tax-free income of up to €14,000.
But Ms Greenbough said: ‘We’ve seen a decrease in people offering ‘searches’ of their homes, we’ve seen that decrease during Covid, but we haven’t seen a lot of landlords coming back to that arrangement.
In response to questions from the MoS, Minister Harris said: ‘We are taking a number of steps to help students. The cost of public transport has been halved. All grants are increasing. If you live further away from the university, your scholarship will be 33% higher and we hope to make much more within the budget.
“We have a fund called the Student Aid Fund. It covers rent, transport, childcare costs for people in difficulty.
“We have increased it significantly and will do so again this year.
“The room rental program is an option for people, an attractive option, I think, for landlords and students. I never suggested that this could solve the problem. But it can make a difference. This is in addition to the hundreds of additional beds opened this year.
But he added: ‘We also need to change policy and that is why we have agreed to invest significantly to help build more homes. The state will financially help colleges build housing, in exchange for affordable rents for students.
He also agreed that short-term rentals on Airbnb have an impact on an “already strained system”.
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