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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
July 2021 51
profit-driven private companies. These
companies have discovered a hihly profitable,
sometimes extortionate, business model:
luxury purpose-built student accommodation.
What little accommodation is bein built is
larely luxury accommodation out of the price
rane of the averae family.
Aparto is a private company with five student
residences across Dublin city. Prices
start at € per week for a shared room
in its Dorset Point property, located a
-minute walk from TU Dublin’s
Graneorman campus. The most
expensive option is the Platinum Ensuite
in Beckett House priced at € per
week, meanin two semesters here will
cost a shockin €, in total.
Many of Aparto’s properties boast
amenities such as ames rooms, yms,
and ‘stylish’ cinema rooms, which is
exactly what every
student workin a
minimum-wae, part-
time job is lookin for.
Some even have ‘house
pets’. The question that
needs to be asked is,
with so many students
strulin to find
reasonably priced
accommodation, why
has there been a sure
in hih - pr iced
accommodation with
such unnecessary luxuries?
The answer, it seems, is international
students.
Accordin to the HEA, in , % of all
students in Ireland were international students.
However, a report conducted by EY found that
international students represented % of the
total students livin in PBSA. Privately-owned
PBSA is profit-driven and was never marketed
to Irish students, but instead to wealthy
overseas students, says Sirr. Developers can
et away with charin international students
three times the price they would Irish students.
With so much uncertainty surroundin
international students in Ireland post-Covid,
the student accommodation market is
extremely volatile. With fewer international
students expected to come to Ireland to study
(a sector previously worth around € million
to the Irish economy per year), Sirr expects that
many privately-owned PBSA will be turned into
co-livin developments or tourist
accommodation.
Which, in circumstances where over-priced
supply seems to break standard economic
rules about all supply helpin reduce price, will
do absolutely nothin to remedy the intractable
housin crisis.
ambitious” due to the fall in construction
activity durin the pandemic. Accordin to the
report, around , units were built in ,
and this is expected to fall to , in the
comin year.
However, accordin to Dr Lorcan Sirr, a
housin lecturer at TU Dublin, supplyin more
PBSA is not the answer.
“Some [PBSA] were lookin for chane of use
even before the pandemic, which suests to
me that the market is oversupplied”, he says.
The notion that supplyin more PBSA is the
best way to take students out of the private
rental sector simply isn’t accurate.
“Traditionally, Irish students don’t stay in
student accommodation. Many attend collee
close to home and commute, and if they don’t,
they typically stay in suburbia, alon bus
routes, mainly because it’s cheaper”, says Sirr.
The key issue is that a lot of the
accommodation is bein supplied by
D
espite expectations due to the
pandemic, the cost of student
accommodation in Dublin has
remained steady – and costly. Two
semesters in the cheapest campus
accommodation in UCD will set you back just
over €,, with the most expensive comin
in at almost €,, per annum.
Sky-hih costs can have the eect of pushin
students towards private landlords, creatin
more demand in a market that is already at
capacity. Private rentals also brin with them
their own issues. With the averae cost of a
room in a shared property costin around €
per month, accordin to a Student Housin
Report done in , rent is not much more
aordable in private properties. There is also
the fact that most private landlords will only
accept a -month lease, meanin students
can be stuck payin for accommodation in the
summer months when collee is finished.
In the current market, landlords can et away
with just about anythin. I once viewed a room
that was completely taken up by the bed and
had no floor space at all. There have been
accounts of rooms with just one bed sleepin
two to three people.
In , the Government launched the
National Student Accommodation Stratey – a
scheme aimin to provide more purpose-built
student accommodation (PBSA) in a bid to free
up private rental properties that would
otherwise be occupied by students.
The Hiher Education Authority (HEA)
estimates that , bed spaces will be
required by to satisfy demand for student
accommodation. It estimates that around
, will be completed by this time. However,
a report by Mitchell McDermott, a construction
consultancy roup, believes this “appears
Developers
can get
away with
charging
international students three
times the price they would
Irish students.
Supply Supply Supply
(?)
Where is the demand
for luxury student
apartments?
By Niamh Alexander
The alternative (for international students)
POLITICS
Handy bedroom/kitchen combo!
An open address to the Irish Government;
the Green Party, its leadership and
members; our elected representatives;
the Irish media; the Environmental Pillar,
environmental scientists; environmental
organisations and climate activists, on
behalf of Ireland's hemp industry pioneers.
The fibre-based development of the
Irish hemp industry, in the Programme for
Government, amounts to economic nonsense
and environmental sabotage. Ireland's hemp
industry is only economically viable if our
farmers have continued access to the full
use potentials of the crop. The transfer of the
food value of the crop to the pharmaceutical
and corporate food sectors, will completely
destroy the core environmental value of
our industry. Most importantly, (in the post
2050 context of global food security), control
of this food should not be in the hands of
corporations. It should be in the hands of
small to medium farmers; that is where it
currently is and that is where it must remain.
Since 2018, the Irish government has
changed almost every rule and regulation
governing hemp. The regulatory and
legislative framework around our industry is
now in total chaos. I nterventions have been
irrational, extreme and destructive in nature.
They show little appreciation of the current
state of scientific knowledge, and have
severely damaged our farms, our businesses,
and our livelihoods. The combined eect
of state interventions has now produced a
policy dynamic which is aligned to transfer
the crop out of the hands of farmers. Unless
this situation is immediately addressed the
only hemp entering our food chain will have
been synthetically grown in laboratories -
Business as Usual will soon be wearing the
new green CAP and PHARM to Fork will be the
New Green Deal for Irish agriculture.
Countless requests from Hemp Federation
Ireland to be included in decision making
processes have been ignored. At the same
time, people with no knowledge of our
industry were put forward to represent
our views and interests. Last week, the
leadership of the Green Party, without
consulting us, agreed to the Programme
for Government proposal for a fibre-
based development of our industry. That
same week, the plan was enthusiastically
discussed in the media by people with no
connection to the industry - our experts were
not included in the conversation. The only
people who could possibly stand to benefit
from such a plan are pharmaceutical and
corporate food interests.
We cannot understand who is informing
government policy in relation to our industry.
Therefore:
• Hemp Federation Ireland calls on the Irish
government, particularly the Department
of Health, and its agencies, to review
their observance of democratic protocols;
observe the requirements of informed
policymaking; recognise the democratc
value of stakeholder involvement in
decision making processes, and; engage
with the Irish Hemp Industry Forum.
• Hemp Federation Ireland calls on the Green
Party leadership and its members to take
whatever action is necessary to withdraw
Green Party support for the Programme for
Government fibre-based development of
this industry.
• Hemp Federation Ireland calls on the
Irish media, our elected representatives,
the Environmental Pillar, environmental
scientists, and the wider community of
environmental organisations and climate
activists, to understand what is happening
to our industry and help us to defend
against its final destruction. Chris Allen
Executive Director Hemp Federation Ireland
Contact: Chris@hempfederationireland.org
- 00353 (0)86 1533663
