Students priced out as accommodation crisis deepens
Students priced out as accommodation crisis deepens - The Labour Party
- 38,900 bed shortfall outrageous, but not surprising
Labour further and higher education spokesperson Senator Laura Harmon today said the scale of the student accommodation crisis laid bare in a new report must act as a wake up call for Government, as students and families across Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway face yet another year of impossible choices. A report by Sherry FitzGerald shows a deficit of at least 38,900 purpose built student bed spaces at the end of 2025, the direct result of years of failure to plan and a willingness to allow profiteering to dominate student housing. Senator Harmon called on the Minister for Further and Higher Education to side with students, to act now to rein in rents, and to bring forward a clear plan to deliver genuinely affordable student accommodation.
Senator Harmon said:
“In a shock to absolutely no one, another report today has spelled out the scale of the student accommodation deficit facing this country. A shortfall of almost 39,000 bed spaces in our main university cities is not an accident. It is the predictable outcome of years of Government inaction and a refusal to challenge profiteering at the heart of the student housing market. Students are being treated as an afterthought, and families are being asked to pick up the tab.
“My office is inundated with students and parents who cannot find anywhere affordable to live. They are calling in distress, months and months before term begins, because they know what is coming. Rents are spiralling, availability is collapsing, and the so called options being offered simply do not exist for ordinary families.
“This crisis does not exist in isolation. At a time when the cost of living, the cost of commuting, the cost of eating and the cost of renting continue to skyrocket, Government has chosen to pile more pressure onto families. Students and their parents already face an additional €500 through increased student fees. Many simply cannot absorb another euro. Yet the Minister continues to look the other way.
“There is and always has been huge profiteering at the heart of the student accommodation crisis. Purpose built student housing has become a high yield asset class rather than a public good. That approach has failed. It has delivered eye watering rents, record profits for developers and operators, and desperation for students who just want a secure place to live while they study.
“If Government was serious about fixing this, it would empower our public institutions to be part of the solution as Labour has suggested. Technological universities must be allowed to borrow to build student accommodation, so that affordable, on campus housing can be delivered at scale.
“Education should open doors, not shut people out. Right now, the lack of affordable accommodation is actively excluding students from further and higher education. Young people are deferring courses, commuting unreasonable distances, or abandoning opportunities altogether because they cannot secure somewhere to live. That is a social and economic failure with long term consequences for our society.”