Nama ‘powerless’ to ease student rental shortage

Nama has said it does not have the power to release properties to help accommodate students who are struggling to find rooms to rent ahead of the new college term.

The National Assets Management Agency said very few houses and apartments linked to its loans are empty anyway. It was responding to a student leader at the country’s biggest third-level college who said the student accommodation market is at crisis point.

University College Dublin Students’ Union president Feargal Hynes said rents and sales prices were inflated by the amount of housing left vacant because it was with Nama, which took over billions of euro of commercial loans from the banks.