RENTING TIPS FOR STUDENTS

SOARING RENTS AND A CHRONIC LACK OF ACCOMMODATION CAUSE OF PROBLEM

THE soaring cost of rent and a critical lack of available accommodation have once again combined to crate a deepening crisis for third level students in Cork.

The latest rental price report from Daft.ie for the second quarter of the year has painted a depressing picture for students hoping to study and live in Cork City – raising fears that new college students could be forced to miss out on their chosen courses.

With the Leaving Cert class of 2017 now having received the first round of college offers, the scramble for accommodation has commenced in earnest with the report’s authors saying the students are now “poised to join the chronically under-supplied housing market”.

The report, aptly entitled ‘Student Crisis in the Housing Market’ revealed that rents in Cork City had increased by 6.8% over the past year to an average of €1,222 per month – compared to €1,051 for the same period in 2016.

While the rate of increase in Cork was lower than other third-level hub cities across the country, such as Limerick, Waterford and Galway, Cork still remains the second most expensive urban centre in the country to rent behind the capital, where the average monthly rent now stands at a staggering €1,707.

The report said that rents in Cork City had risen by more than 57% since their lowest point at the tail end of the last decade and while urban inflation in Cork had fallen from 10% to 7%, rents were “still increasing rapidly.”

The average rent for a single bed room in the city now stands at €399 (up 14% from 2016) and €474 for a double bed room (up 9.5%).

The average rent in the city suburbs now stands at €352 for a singe bed and €445 for a double bed room (up 2.9% and 8.5% respectively), with the equivalent in Cork communter towns standing at €356 (up 11.3%) and €432 (up 8.5%).

The average rent in Cork County stands at €832 per month, an increase of 11.2% on the figure for a year ago and up by 42.8% from their trough.

Of course, this is all dependant on whether you can find a place to rent at all, with the Daft.ie report saying that the amount of available accommodation in Cork, and indeed across the entire province of Munster is at its lowest level since the middle of the last decade – with just 700 rental properties on the market across the entire province.

This trend is reflected across the country, with just 2,390 properties available to rent nationwide on August 1, the lowest number recorded since the DAFT.ie series started in 2006.

With mere weeks to go until the start of the new college year, students are now facing a desperate scramble to secure accommodation – that is assuming they can even afford the high rents sought, which are placing a huge financial burden on parents supporting children entering third level education.

In the foreword to the report, UCD Students’ Union President Kate Acough and TCD Students’ Union President Kieran McNulty wrote that even a cursory glance at the data showed the enormity of the challenge awaiting students.

“The class of 2017 are largely low-income newcomers to the most competitive areas of the housing market. In the private sector right now it is unlikely they will get a viewing let alone a lease,” they wrote.

They called on homeowners to consider renting out empty rooms in their houses as digs for students, pointing out that they can earn up to €14,000 per annum in non taxable income from their spare rooms.

“However, take-up remains low because of negative stereotypes... If this scheme does not see a rise in take-up, many young people, relieved after their Leaving Cert results, are going to have their spirits crushed,” they warned.