Student rents fall by €1,000 compared to last year

TYPICAL STUDENT rents for the coming academic year have fallen by €1,000 compared to last year, according to a “back to college special” snapshot of student accommodation costs by Daft.ie.

The property website found that the average price paid for most types of typical student accommodation, from single rooms to five-bedroom houses, had fallen by double-digit percentages over the past year.

The cost of renting a single room in Dublin city centre in the second quarter of 2009 was €433 a month, down 14 per cent on last year. In north Dublin city, this fell to €353, while in south Dublin city, the average rent for a single room was €384.

A typical student renting a double room in Dublin, or students renting a two-bedroom property in Galway and Limerick, could expect to pay €1,000 less in the 2009-2010 academic year, than last year, the Daft.ie report suggests.

When ranked by the cost of a double room, students looking for accommodation close to Trinity College Dublin or Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) pay the most, at an average cost of €543 a month.

The cost of a double room near NUI Maynooth was €363, while close to University College Cork or Cork Institute of Technology, the average double room rent was €344.

The cheapest location for renting a double room close to a third-level institution was in Letterkenny (an average of €231 a month), followed by Castlebar (€265), Sligo and Athlone (both €268) and Tralee (€276).