Student accommodation crisis: Government aims to increase beds in digs by 10,000

The Government is aiming to increase what is available under the rent-a-room scheme by 10,000. File picture

A central plank of the Government's plans to increase student accommodation over the next decade is to increase the number of beds in digs by 10,000.

The new Student Accommodation Strategy aims to boost bed numbers between now and 2035 by 42,000.

Of that total, the Government is aiming to increase what is available under the rent-a-room scheme by 10,000.

The remaining 32,000 are expected to be delivered through public-private partnerships, with developers building on campus sites.

These accommodation centres will then be run by the developers.

Higher education Minister James Lawless said significant funds were being allocated to the delivery of student accommodation, but the Government needed to use “every lever at our disposal”.

Mr Lawless said there was private sector interest in developing student accommodation. He cited the 15,000 beds with planning permission that are yet to be commenced.

He said these beds had not been delivered due to “viability issues”, adding the new framework would assist getting them over the line.

On the rent-a-room scheme, Mr Lawless said he wanted to see more people take up licence agreements between students and homeowners.

Mr Lawless said he believed there should be a minimum standard for accommodation provided by homeowners who advertise rooms through direct college portals.

He said the Government needed to “tread very carefully” on this and not provide any additional burdens on people seeking to rent out rooms for students.

The minister said his department had provided voluntary guidance on this, adding those standards should be met if colleges are advertising digs via their websites.

The new strategy also provides for the introduction of "nomination agreements", which will allow universities and colleges to reach agreements with private student accommodation providers to set aside multiple rooms each year.

In other countries, this gives the university or college some level of control over the level of rent charged to students.

“That also gives certainty to the private sector by giving those nomination agreements, which will be long-lived over multiple years. It gives certainty in terms of financing, in terms of de-risking a little bit.”

Mr Lawless suggested such agreements could see colleges agree that between 75% and 90% of beds at a private accommodation provider be filled with students.

He said the remaining beds could then be offered to either university staff or to “frontline workers”.

Mr Lawless said he did not expect the nomination agreement process to be ready in time for the upcoming academic year.