Landlords forced to compete for student tenants

THIRD-LEVEL students seeking accommodation in coming weeks can look forward to lower rents and even added incentives as landlords compete to get students into their houses and flats. However the rate at which rents have fallen varies throughout the State.

While rents are down about 17 per cent in Dublin, according to students unions, they have fallen only slightly in Sligo, and not at all in locations such as Waterford, to the anger of student representatives there.

Jen Jordan, student union accommodation and welfare officer at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), said landlords had been approaching the college and the union asking for help in finding tenants. “They’ve been asking to have their accommodation listed on both the college’s website and our website. It’s a total renter’s market out there.

“People are paying this year between €80 and €110 a week for a room in a house or apartment, though the €110 would be pushing it a bit. But last year if you were paying €80, you’d probably have to share a room.”

Landlords and apartment managers, she said, had been adding some “great incentives” to encourage people to choose what they have to offer.

At the National College of Art and Design in Dublin city centre, union president Frank Wasser said landlords had been contacting his office asking whether they should drop rents and by how much.

Though private rents had fallen significantly in Cork, UCC’s accommodation officer Maura O’Neill believed landlords who traditionally let to students had been “slow to respond”.

“There are choices this year in every sector: in houses, apartments, complexes, digs – and students are really looking for value. Last year, the whole year, I had three parents asking about price. This year every parent is asking: ‘Why is this more expensive than this?’; ‘What should we expect to pay in this area or that?’ ”

She said where last year students paid about €75 to €90 a week, this year they should expect to pay about €65 to €80 a week.

“It’s a moderate drop of about €10 a week, but over a month that’s significant for students. There is great value to be had if students take their time – and they are taking their time. The days of ‘Gimme a house! Any house!’ are gone.”

The challenge for landlords this year would not only be to fill their houses or apartments, but to keep them full all year. She expected students would keep an eye out for even better value during the year and would move if they found it.

In Galway, rents had come down by about €40 a month to average €70 a week for a single room, union welfare officer Emma Conway said. “It would be about €10 more a week if that room slept two.”

In most parts of the State, including Carlow, Athlone, Dún Laoghaire and Letterkenny, accommodation officers say students will get better accommodation for smaller rents this year.

Marian Gibbons, accommodation officer with the union in Letterkenny IT, reflected a common view in saying that landlords, who would have only considered professional tenants in the past, were now “desperate to just get their houses let” and they now saw students as attractive.

Sligo and Waterford, however, are exceptions. Decreases were minimal in Sligo and non-existent in Waterford. A campaign is being planned by the students union at Waterford IT about the stubbornly high rents, a situation which union welfare officer Paddy McDonald described as “ridiculous”.

“Rents haven’t moved [from €65- €85 a week] since last year. From next week we will be phoning all the landlords on our database to see if they will drop their rents, and we’re advising all students to negotiate lower rents too.”