Minister urged to block student accommodation being used for tourists

A number of planning applications in Cork and Dublin are seeking to use student beds as tourist accommodation, a move criticised by Labour housing spokesperson Rebecca Moynihan

Housing minister Darragh O'Brien. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Housing minister Darragh O'Brien has been urged to support legislation which would stop student accommodation being used for tourism.

Student accommodation provider Uninest has been granted permission to temporarily use 571 student rooms at Grangegorman in Dublin as rooms for tourists until next May.

In Cork, a developer behind some of the city's newest student accommodation is also seeking to convert part of its development into tourist and visitor accommodation.

Irish Student Fund (Cork) IV — Brewery Quarter Student Ireland Limited has applied to Cork City Council to use 168 beds at its Lee Point Brewery Quarter development on South Main St for tourists and visitors from September 1, 2021 to May 31, 2022.

Labour housing spokesperson Rebecca Moynihan said the Government must support her bill to prevent developers from changing the use of student accommodation.

Labour housing spokesperson Senator Rebecca Moynihan. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

“This luxury student complex was once deemed vital for students by Government, at the detriment of local communities in inner-city Dublin that are crying out for affordable housing," said Ms Moynihan.

"It’s genuinely shocking that developers are changing planning applications to co-living or tourist accommodation in the depths of a housing crisis. 

Unfortunately, they do this because they know they can. They know this Government is committed to taking an investor-led approach to housing.

"We need stronger planning guidelines on student accommodation to stop developers attempting to turn purpose-built student accommodation into apartments for tourists. There are several luxury student accommodation builds across inner-city Dublin, and we cannot allow developers to convert them into tourist apartments at a whim."

A spokesperson for the Department of Housing said that the applications were temporary and could not be continued indefinitely. 

"The department is aware of some applications that are being made in the Dublin area for temporary changes of use of student accommodation projects to other non-student residential uses," the spokesperson said. 

"These applications are a matter for the relevant planning authority.

"A temporary permission is for a specified period of time. Continuation of the use thereafter would require a further permission for alternative or similar use, whether temporary or permanent, or would otherwise become an unauthorised development against which planning enforcement action could be taken."

In the Grangegorman application, the planning assessment says that the use of the building is important for the vibrancy of the area. 

It accepts the rationale that demand for student accommodation is down significantly due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The rationale for this application is set out in the submitted documentation, setting out that the Covid-19 pandemic has significantly reduced the need for student accommodation and therefore the development will remain vacant for the academic year unless an alternate use is established accommodating nonstudents to the building," it states.

"The Planning Authority accepts that the occupation of the existing development is important to ensure ongoing surveillance and activation of the street and to further contribute to the vibrancy and vitality of the area."