Hotels lined up to house students

Hotel rooms are being considered as a temporary solution to accommodate students who may struggle to find rooms to rent in Cork.

UCC had a strong response to calls for homeowners to let rooms accommodation amid reports of the toughest year in a long time for students to find places to live.

It listed dozens of properties available for the coming term on its accommodation website yesterday, including around 20 owner-occupied homes offering rooms, some with meals included in the rent.

The income from such rent-a-room lettings is tax free if no more than €12,000 is earned, a threshold raised this year from €10,000.

But as hundreds more just begin their search, including some of the 2,900 people offered college places by the CAO yesterday, UCC Students Union president Aidan Coffey said both the union and UCC’s accommodation offices have been inundated with requests for help.

“It’s mainly Irish but also a few European students who have got CAO offers, and we hope to get everybody sorted out. We have been telling people if they have been coming a long distance, to book into a hotel, but keep looking and something will turn up,” he said.

It is understood rooms in hotels are being block booked to help cater for those who may take longer to find a place to stay. “We have been talking to a few different places around, and there won’t be a problem, students will be accommodated,” Mr Coffey said.

Figures revealed in the Irish Examiner last week show a rising proportion of grant recipients go to college further from home, but difficulties finding or affording housing may also mean more commuting students.

Mr Coffey said he was aware of many students driving or travelling by bus on return journeys that take over two hours each day, but the time involved had a negative effect on their education.

A report from Daft.ie last week showed the average cost of a room in a three-bed house in Cork city went up 9% in the past year to €301 a month.

The equivalent rents in Dublin and Galway from April to June 2015 were €498 and €270, up 10% and 9% in a year.