Claims university students are being offered shared beds as rental crisis deepens
Student welfare officers have also revealed how some landlords lock kitchens at 8pm and front doors from 10pm if students are not indoors
The student rental crisis is now so bad that some students are seeing shared beds advertised, it is claimed.
Student welfare officers have also revealed how some landlords lock kitchens at 8pm and front doors from 10pm if students are not indoors. Some students’ unions claimed this week that landlords are not only offering shared rooms to rent – but also shared beds.
Others warned that the soaring cost of living and rents means one in five students skip meals to save money. University College Cork welfare officer Lucrecia Luna Smee said: “Students sharing rooms is still fairly common and we have now heard from other colleges that people are advertising shared beds. One room, one double bed that you would be sharing with a complete stranger.”
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Lucrecia told the Irish Mirror: “We are not aware of it in UCC but at other colleges that there are landlords out there who are offering shared beds. They are advertising shared rooms and not advertising that it is a shared bed.”
Sinn Féin TD Mairead Farrell for Galway West, who is the party’s higher education spokesperson, wants new legislation to protect students.
She said: “Shared beds is something new that I have come across. One young man came to me and said that he had viewed a number of rooms. One place had said there was two to a room in single beds and in another room, which cost lower, there was a double bed. That’s really concerning. It should be sounding alarm bells at Government level. This is a symptom of the broader housing crisis.”
Deputy Farrell added: “It is really shocking to hear that students are being offered shared beds when searching for accommodation for the upcoming academic year. This is unsuitable and unacceptable. I was particularly outraged to hear the story from one student who when looking for accommodation was shown a shared room with one double bed. This room was also only available for five days a week.”
She also claimed that homeowners who rent rooms to students as part of the rent-a-room relief scheme are “completely unregulated”. The rooms are rented as part of a tax subsidy of up to €14,000 a year.
Sinn Fein TD Farrell claimed “we hear constant horror stories” that students must undertake child-minding duties to rent the room, about others who are evicted overnight, or wrongly lose their deposits with no means of redress.
Reports claimed that some purpose-built student accommodation came with costs of between €320 and €450 a week in larger cities like Cork. Students’ representative bodies in Galway claimed rents are as high as €800. Deputy Farrell said accommodation in Galway has increased by 13.3 per cent to €751 in recent years.
Dublin has had the highest rise in average college expenses this year, costing up to €168 more each month, according to Switcher.ie’s Student Cost of Living Guide 2024. The Youth Council of Ireland recently published a report which showed the average cost of third level education has increased by €500 a month and that one in five students skip meals to save money. They have revealed that the huge charges are prohibitive for many students and critics blame vulture funds.
They say it means that many students either live at home with their parents and commute to college or have deferred for a year in order to work and save to pay rent for next year. The students claim that they must also agree to only use the accommodation Monday to Friday and must vacate every weekend. Some who rent a room in a homeowner’s house also claimed that the kitchen is off limits from 8pm and the front door is locked from 10pm.
Deputy Farrell is calling for contracts that guarantee seven-day stays. She said on RTE radio: “Every year we see pressures on student housing, but the reality is that it has got a lot more difficult. In Dublin, for example, vulture funds own more student accommodation than universities and they are pricing students out of the market.”
University College Cork’s students’ union welfare officers calculated that the average cost of a single bedroom in 2017 was less than €400 a month. It is now up to €592, a jump of 48 per cent in only seven years.
Students sharing rooms is not uncommon historically and was highlighted in TV show Normal People with actor Paul Mescal’s character Connell Waldron sharing a room when at Trinity College Dublin.
UCC welfare officer Lucrecia said: “Students are paying €350 to €400 in the bigger cities. It’s an absolute nightmare. I heard of students commuting from Sligo and Donegal to Cork. These are daily, or multiple weekly trips, for couch-surfing. The digs issue is huge. People are couch-surfing at the weekends if they are on a five-day a week lease. Or they are paying for hotels.
“We are aware of one student who was getting locked out of her accommodation at 10pm every night if she wasn’t home. And the kitchen would get locked at 8pm. That is severely restrictive.”
University College Galway’s students’ union vice-president Chloe Anderson warned: “Students are so stressed.” She said: “Digs offering four days a week is not feasible for the vast majority of students, but sometimes it can be the only option.”
Chloe added: “Even compared to when I first moved here in 2022, you can now see rent up as far as €800. It’s an exponential rate. Without [legislative] measures or rental caps, it’s hard to see it slowing down any time soon.”
Taoiseach Simon Harris announced in April past €100m in funding to develop extra student accommodation with 1,000 beds. The money will part-finance three projects in UCD, DCU and Maynooth and rents for a proportion of the beds will be below market value. Construction is to start early next year.
Minister Patrick O’Donovan at the Department of Higher Education said at the time: “I am deeply conscious that the cost of accommodation can be a challenge for many students and would make the reality of higher education beyond the reach of many.”
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