Galway students to sleep out in protest over accommodation shortage

About 100 houses and apartments are listed on Airbnb around Galway, yet students preparing to return to the city’s two universities face a shortage of places to live. Student representatives are staging a sleep-out in Galway tonight to demand urgent action.

Student unions say the housing crisis could force some students to commute for hours to attend lectures. Others may have to defer their university places. They are calling for measures to reduce accommodation costs and increase the supply of suitable rental homes.

New private student accommodation has opened in the city, but Seán de Búrca, president of the University of Galway Students’ Union, said it remained prohibitively expensive for many students. He said the new supply had not made a significant difference to the wider housing problem.

De Búrca also pointed to the continuing use of homes as short-term rentals. He said hundreds of units could otherwise accommodate students. The cheapest room listed on Daft costs €750 per month, while new regulations for the short-term rental market are due in the coming months. Student leaders say existing rules are not being enforced effectively.

Galway City Council has received only two applications from private landlords this year to change properties’ use for short-term lets. Over the previous six years, it received 18 such applications. Daniel Walsh, president of Aontas na Mac Léinn in Éirinn, said the problems facing Galway were also occurring elsewhere.

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put up with such a dire state of housing