Tipperary TD says student accommodation leases 'must match the academic year'

Student accommodation leases must match academic year, according to Tipperary TD Michael Lowry.

Pointing out that it was now less than six months away from the annual search for accommodation by students attending universities and colleges across the country, Deputy Lowry said that, with rental accommodation of all types extremely difficult to find, purpose-built student accommodation was the preferred choice of many students, particularly those who were just starting out on their third level journey.

"The average duration of the academic year at third level is 41 weeks. However, some providers of student accommodation, particularly in Dublin and Cork, are now stating that they will only offer 51-week leases to students, despite the academic year being ten weeks less than this duration.

"With an average weekly rent requirement of up to €300 for such accommodation, this would result in students and/or their family being forced to pay up to €3,000 to cover the 10 weeks when the accommodation is not required," he said.

Deputy Lowry said that developers who had provided student accommodation had been given generous incentives to do so because of the increasing need for such purpose-built units.

"In the case of most such purpose-built buildings, their planning permission dictates they are for letting for the duration of the academic year only," the Independent TD pointed out.

He said that, in addition to the tax benefits they received, they were also exempted from the Residential Tenancies Act because they were providing student accommodation for the established 41-week academic year. Should they decide to extend tenancies by charging rent for 51 weeks they would no longer be entitled to such an exemption.

Also, in such cases, if students so wished, could enforce their tenant rights and extend their tenancy by up to 5.5 years.

"This would prove catastrophic for future students," he said.

"The bottom line is that incentives were provided to developers to ensure that students have an available safe place to live near their place of learning for the college year. This is what they agreed to do and the terms of this agreement must be upheld to ensure that fairness prevails," said Deputy Lowry.