The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has launched a new student accommodation website that allows homeowners to list spare rooms and apartments for rent.
It says that the 13% increase in the cost of campus accommodation and student grant reduction of more than 5% in real terms over the past four years have squeezed students out of the market.
This has resulted in many students having “taken to long commutes (some from as far as Waterford and Ballinasloe), resorted to sleeping on couches in friends’ accommodation on a permanent basis or living in hostels.”
The website launch comes three weeks after the USI warned that a “combination of a shortfall of purpose-built accommodation for students and the current state of the private rental sector will inevitably lead to students being forced to drop out of college.”
New research published this morning by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) predicts that Dublin will run out of vacant housing stock this year.
The USI website is available at homes.usi.ie.
