Government expects to meet student bed spaces target

The Government says that targeted increases in purpose-built student accommodation should be met or even exceeded by the end of next year.

Its July 2016 Rebuilding Ireland housing strategy set a target of having beds for an extra 7,000 students in purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) by the end of 2019. The target is almost identical to the number of bed spaces in PBSA schemes where work was already underway or planning permission had been granted by last summer.

According to a new progress report on the National Student Accommodation Strategy, which was published by the Department of Education last July, 5,260 bed spaces are already completed or are due for completion by the end of this year.