The Workers’ Party have issued a call for rent caps to be introduced across all purpose-built student accommodation, to regulate the rapidly-expanding private student accommodation market.
The calls come in the wake of an announcement by Global Student Accommodation (GSA) and Harrison Street Real Estate Capital that they are expanding their investment in the market by a further €200 million.
Speaking on the matter, Cllr. Éilis Ryan of the Workers’ Party said:
“There is an absolute boom in student accommodation in Dublin, and I don’t mean that in a positive way. To take GSA as an example, they already run thousands of beds across Dublin under the brand Uninest, and rents average in the range of €1,000 / month per student. These kinds of rents serve no decent purpose whatsover.”
Cllr. Ryan said there was a myth being used that purpose-built student accommodation would ease pressure in the private rental market, to justify the scale of developments in the sector:
“No ordinary student can pay €1,000 / month in rent. This accommodation is catering to an elite market of students who are completing postgraduate or study-abroad degrees which universities make cash out of.
“If we are serious about purpose-built student accommodation easing the housing crisis, then let’s bring in rent caps to make the likes of Uninest and GSA affordable to ordinary students.”
The Workers’ Party councillor concluded:
“Yet another announcement of a thousand or so student beds is not good news for Dublin. It’s more land that could have been used for public housing, and its more land that would otherwise have delivered Part V social housing.
“Let’s be honest about why these billion-dollar funds and investors are interested in student accommodation – because they are being let charge exorbitant rents, and making massive profits in the process.
“In the long term, student accommodation should be funded and built publicly. But it’s essential that an immediate cap on rent be introduced to at a minimum start regulating these companies.”