Student union officers in University College Dublin have turned to Snapchat to expose substandard rental accommodation in Dublin city, as part of an ongoing campaign.
The second video in the student union’s campaign to highlight poor quality accommodation on the market was published on their social media Snapchat account.
The video showed two rooms for rent marketed to students ahead of the September college term, which the student union president Katie Ascough viewed in recent weeks.
In one house in Crumlin a bed in the property’s living room was on offer for €250 a month. The three bedrooms in the house were being shared between six people in the property. The bed on offer was a bunk bed above the living room couch.
“It was a man-made bunk bed. Basically, a grill of metal bars propped up by a cheap, DIY timber frame” Ms Ascough said.
Speaking afterwards Ms Ascough said “the place was an example of the lengths people are going to in Dublin” to settle for cheap rooms.
“You have to go to ridiculous lengths to have an affordable rent, if you’re not able to cough up €1,500 per month, which is the average rent in the city” she said.
The second room in the video showed a shared bedroom to rent in Kilmainham for €300 a month. The single bed on offer was one of three directly beside each other in a small room. The video also highlighted examples of mould on the property’s walls and ceiling.
CAO rush
Following the first round of CAO college course offers today many students will begin to hunt for accommodation near their college for the coming term.
The number of purpose-built student housing developments are increasing in Dublin, Cork and Galway, but spaces in the accommodation are expected to be snapped up before September.
Aparto is a one accommodation management service running three student housing developments in Dublin.
Binary Hub, a 471-bed student housing development run by the company on Bonham Street in Dublin 8 is already booked out. Other student accommodation at Montrose by UCD, and Dorset Point in the city centre, are expected to be sold out by early September.
Standard rooms in the Montrose accommodation located across the Stilorgan bypass opposite UCD are fully booked, and the group only have more expensive “superior” class student beds available.
Rooms in the accommodation, like many of the new student housing developments, range from between €255 and €265 a week.
Spaces in on-campus accommodation run by universities are also limited, and in University College Cork all available beds were booked out by July.
Scams
The competitive private rental market also includes a growing number of international students and EU students travelling to study in Ireland this September.
Students travelling to Ireland from abroad are more vulnerable to rental scams or exploitation, as they must attempt to secure a lease with a landlord while outside of the country.
One standard piece of advice to renters to help avoid scams is to never hand over any money for a deposit or rent before viewing the property.
Landlords who claim to be out of the country and unable to show you around the property until you transfer your security deposit to them, after which point they break off contact, is a common scam in the Dublin rental market.
