Fourth-year University College Dublin (UCD) history and politics student Evan Fitzgerald ought to be well accustomed to the annual scramble for accommodation, but each year still brings new challenges.
Fitzgerald (21), who is from Ballymoney in Co Wexford, spent his first year in purpose-built accommodation and his second year in digs – or a room in an owner-occupied home.
In third year he opted to commute an hour and a half each way for the first term and spent the second abroad as an Erasmus student.
Commuting by car, he says, left him exhausted.
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“It drains all the joy out of being a student,” he says.
For his final year, like tens of thousands of other students, he has spent the last six weeks looking for accommodation.
“I’ve sent out a lot of messages to people and getting no response,” he says.
“It’s incredibly stressful. I should be looking forward to going back to college, but it’s been a complete drag trying to find a place to live. Most people I talk to are in the same position unless they live in Dublin already.”
Central Applications Office offers for college places are out, the leaves are starting to fall, the days are drawing in and another accommodation scramble beckons for the country’s 280,000 third-level students.
The number of third-level students has increased by 30 per cent in the last 10 years, but there has been no attendant increase in student accommodation. There are still only 15,648 State-funded purpose-built student accommodation units in the country.
The deepening housing crisis has made the ritual of living away from home a nerve-racking one, especially for first-year students.
In its National Student Accommodation Strategy 2026-2035, the Government concedes that there is already a deficit of 15,000 student beds, rising to 42,000 student beds by 2035. Amlé – or Aontas na Mac Léinn in Éirinn, the national students’ union body – estimates that the shortage is actually between 30,000 and 50,000 beds every year.
Since last September, seven student accommodation developments and 987 beds have been completed. Commencement notices and student accommodation developments on-site have increased from 2,379 beds in December 2025 to 3,136 at the end of July 2026, with a further 419 beds completed so far this year, according to the Department of Further and Higher Education.
But, by the time many of these beds will arise, students starting in third-level institutions this autumn will have completed their studies.
Dublin
Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless announced Government approval for Trinity College Dublin’s Dartry student accommodation project in south Dublin this week.
This will provide a further 358 student beds at 30 per cent below market rates for 30 years. It will be completed under the Government’s short-term activation programme, a €100 million fund set up in 2022 to help universities bridge the viability gap given the construction inflation that occurred around that time.
It will not be enough, says Trinity College Dublin students’ union president Amy Kennedy.
“For 23,000 students, we are under 2,000 beds and a lot of that is the same accommodation that Trinity has been relying on since it was a much smaller university. It has not grown to scale with the growth of the student body,” she says.
“I know the student accommodation strategy that came out this year has a really strong emphasis on private providers, but the ones that are available in Dublin city centre are, to be quite frank, price gouging at obscene levels.
“The cheapest rooms run at €1,300 a month at the absolute lowest level. You’ll generally not find anything for below €1,000 a month in the private providers and that is in the case of students having seven or eight students sharing a kitchen.”
Dublin students who cannot live at home face some of the highest accommodation costs in Europe.
“Student accommodation isn’t happening in a vacuum,” says UCD students’ union president Enzo Crothers of the wider housing crisis.
Currently 493 beds are under construction at UCD’s Belfield campus. At the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Higher Education in April, Sinn Féin Senator Pauline Tully noted that the State was providing €67 million for that development, which works out at €130,000 a bed. She also noted that 405 units in Dublin City University will cost €41 million at an average cost of €101,000 per bed.
Speaking at that committee, Department of Further and Higher Education head of capital and corporate division Paul Lemass admitted that construction inflation at present is “horrendous”.
Crothers says the construction costs of student accommodation is “insane”.
“We’re not talking about luxury suites or they definitely shouldn’t be,” he says.
It’s a “wild west” situation for digs, he adds. Third-level institutions provide sample licensing agreements for landlords, but it is up to landlords to decide whether or not to engage in good faith with students.
“That’s very concerning when you have students who are under the age of 18 going to student accommodation through the digs system, because they are more vulnerable compared to their peers who are in their second, third or fourth year of college.”
Galway
Outside Dublin, Galway is probably the city where demand for student accommodation is most acute. There are an estimated 30,000 students in the city between the University of Galway and the Atlantic Technological University Galway.
“Each year it is getting worse and worse,” says University of Galway students’ union president Seán de Búrca.
“We are seeing an increase in applications from the 10 poorest counties. There’s a 25 per cent increase in applications from Donegal, which is the poorest county in Ireland.
“We are going to be looking at more first years who simply can’t afford the mad rents that are already there.”
There are instances, he says, where students have deferred their studies at the university or not taken up a course because they cannot find anywhere to live.
The private sector is not the answer, he adds, referring to a 345-bed student accommodation unit in Galway’s Docklands opening next month.
The eight-storey Queen Street Place is a step above the usual student accommodation with a gym and fitness studio and rooftop terraces, but the price is a step above what students would expect to pay.
The cheapest room for a student is €315 a week, €1,365 a month or almost €12,000 per academic year, rising to €380 a week, €1,646 a month or €14,440 a year for the “platinum” package.
There is clearly demand as the platinum package is sold out and there is a waiting list.
“As much as you could be happy to see more student accommodation coming online, we are not jumping for joy when it is something that is out of the price range for so many students,” he says.
A University of Galway spokesman said it has no involvement with the Queen Street Place development.
He says the university has 1,800 on-campus student accommodation beds at prices between €368.45 a month for a shared room to €898.44 for the most expensive option.
“We have done our utmost in terms of accommodation costs for students in recent years, freezing or reducing rates for more than half (57 per cent) of on-campus beds across the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years. We were the only university in Ireland to take this approach,” he says.
“We would dearly like to see more accommodation for students in the city, at a reasonable price and of a good standard, so that they can get the best from their experience at the university.”
Cork
University College Cork students’ union welfare officer Caoimhe Brinkley describes an “atmosphere of desperation” among many of its 20,000 students.
“I’ve been getting emails constantly with regards to students not being able to find accommodation,” she says.
“When they do find accommodation, the prices are extortionate and outside their budget. The situation is dire.
“When you see the quality of the accommodation these landlords are providing, it is not worth the money they are charging.
“Cork is a lovely place to come to college. Students deserve to study there, but it is not financially possible for a lot of them.”
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Third-level institutions had hoped there would be another round of direct exchequer funding to provide financial support to the construction of student accommodation, but the Government baulked at this given the costs involved.
Instead, the policy in the Government’s student accommodation strategy is for “nomination agreements” with private sector developers where the developers will be given sites on campuses.
The developers will build student accommodation, with the third-level institution agreeing to take a specified number of beds.
The third-level institutions agree a rent with the developer for those beds for a set period. The strategy was clear that demand for student accommodation was “far in excess of the State’s funding capacity” and private sector funding would have to be involved.
Third-level institutions have warned the Government that dependence on the private sector will create rents that are morally and practically unaffordable for most students.
One university source says without State funding, private providers will have to charge between €12,000 and €14,000 a year to make their investments viable.
“Universities are increasingly confronted with a situation where the financially viable rent and the socially acceptable rent are two very different numbers,” says the source.
“Developers are indicating rent levels of approximately €12,000-€14,000 per bed per annum to support new developments, while existing university accommodation is typically much lower.
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“If new supply can only be delivered at rent levels that students struggle to afford, universities face a significant affordability and reputational dilemma.”
AMLÉ president Daniel Walsh says the reliance on the private sector for future student accommodation amounts to a “complete dereliction of the State’s duty to students and young people”.
“It delegates the responsibility for tackling the student accommodation crisis entirely to the private market, to the same developers and vulture funds who profit from the exploitation of students,” he says.
