For students, access to third level education is not just a matter of securing the points needed to qualify for their chosen course. For many it is also a matter of finance, paying the €2,750 student contribution fee for college admission. But for those attending courses at colleges far away from home, the search for accommodation near where they study presents a further challenge. This year, that challenge could not be more daunting.
Countrywide, fewer properties are available to rent and rental prices have risen sharply this year, as demand for accommodation greatly exceeds supply. In Dublin the shortage is felt most acutely. In the capital some 40 per cent fewer properties are available to rent than a year ago, while rents have risen by more than one sixth in that time. A short-term consequence of the property crash was a surplus of rental properties with rents remaining static. Latterly, this has given way to a supply shortage and, as demand surged, rents rose. But, as yet, there is little new construction under way to narrow the gap between supply and demand.
These imbalances in the housing market affect not merely students, but all in the work force who rely on rented accommodation that remains in short supply, and has become much more expensive. This has an adverse impact on labour mobility. Jobs may remain unfilled because of the supply and price problems in the rental market, thereby affecting Ireland’s competitiveness, and deterring rather than attracting foreign direct investment.
How can what is a bad situation be improved, even temporarily, to benefit students and others? The ban introduced last year on rented bedsits – of which there are an estimated 4,000 in Dublin – could be relaxed for a period to ease the accommodation problem. And, the merits of the rent-a-room scheme, which allows home owners who rent a room to private tenants to gain full tax relief on up to €10,000 of that rental income, could be more widely advocated, and more heavily advertised.