Students are ‘priced out’ by high rents
Students living and studying in Cork city are feeling the pinch as rent prices continue to soar.
A rental price report published for the second quarter of 2019 by property website Daft.ie this week showed that rents rose by 7.9 per cent in the past year in Cork city.
The increase means that Leeside renters are now paying an average of €1,366 per month to live in the city.
Students living, studying and working in the city have been particularly affected by rising rents in recent years, and although the latest figures indicate a national slowdown in rental inflation, student unions in Cork are still extremely concerned.
Speaking to the Cork Independent, President of the CIT Student Union, Aaron Buckley, said: “It's not being funded from the top down. Some people are paying €150 a week on rent, that's before you take into account bills, cleaning fees, parking, and that's before you even go outside your door to get your food shop for the week. And then your fees on top of all that. It's massive altogether.”
At €1,391, the average monthly rent nationwide during the second quarter of 2019 marks the thirteenth consecutive quarter of record rents in Ireland.
Despite the rise in rent prices, the second quarter of 2019 saw the country record its lowest rate of rent inflation since 2013.
According to Daft.ie, the slowdown in rental inflation is driven by Dublin, where annual inflation has fallen from a high of 13.4 per cent in mid-2018 to its current position of 4.5 per cent.
However, Mr Buckley said that many of the issues faced by students fall within the remit of the Department of Education.
He said: “Colleges around the country need to build on-campus accommodation so that students won’t be exploited and used as cash cows. We've got the second highest fees in Europe and if and when Britain leaves the EU, we'll have the highest.
“People have been saying for a long time that it's going to get better. In Cork in particular, I think we have one of the worst accommodation crises in Ireland for students. Cork has two great colleges in CIT and UCC. It's a great place to go to college. It's got loads of opportunities with great work placement, but unfortunately the students are being priced out of education.”
In a statement to the Cork Independent, the Department of Educations said: “Price is ultimately a function of supply and demand and while the National Student Accommodation Strategy (NSAS) is providing conditions to promote the development of additional purpose built student accommodation (PBSA), this does take time.
“PBSA is one part of the accommodation mix for students and we are promoting increased supply through the NSAS which has, to date, seen the delivery of 7,000 additional bed-spaces for students since summer 2016. Over 400 of these bed-spaces are in Cork, with an additional 900 spaces known to be under construction at this moment in time and due for release in late 2020.”