In Semester 1 we surveyed you to find out more about your accommodation situation, these results will help us lobby TU Dublin in order to get the very best onsite student accommodation possible for TU Dublin students.
The biggest issue that stand out for me are what students are actually paying in rent compared to what students consider to be a fair price. Then when you add on money spent on travel expenses, the cost rises even more which is putting so much financial stress on students.
Respondent Profile
Most respondents have their permanent or family home in Leinster (56%) and 75% of all respondents are aged between 18 – 24. 63% of all respondents are renting and only 4% of renters are renting outside Dublin. 47% of all respondents are traditional students CAO pathway).
Type of Accommodation
58% of respondents are living in shared houses or apartments. With 16% living in Digs (defined as living with family/owner-occupier) and another 16% are living in purpose-built student accom
Costs
84% are paying 500 euros or higher per month in accommodation costs, with 22% of these paying over 1000 euros per month, as we drill into these figures further, we see 4% of these paying 1500 or over. 49% of respondents are shouldering these costs themselves with no external help, another 42% of costs are paid for by guardians.
While most students travel less than 20km (68%) a substantial 15% travel between 21 – 40km and 13% travel a considerable 41 – 100km daily. Almost 15% of all respondents are spending over 200 euros on travel per month.
The Future
When asked what they would consider a fair price for accommodation within walking distance of their campus (based on a single room with shared bathroom) 31% said 500 euros was fair, 29% said 400 was fair and 17% less than 400 was a fair price. Students were asked what they thought was a fair/affordable rate for accommodation within an hours commute of their campus (based on single room with shared bathroom) 55% said less than 400 euros.
Increases in onsite campus accommodation are happening on a regular basis in DCU, UCD and UCC. If the TU Dublin are planning on having accommodation on site for students, there needs to be legislation put in place by the government to stop these crazy prices from happening, along with tenancy rights for students too.
