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An Unhoused Union: Europe’s Student Housing Crisis

JOSHUA

Mccormack

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As the accommodation crisis continues to spiral further and further out of control, students are forced to resort to increasingly desperate methods to access their education: soul crushing commutes, squalid apartments, taking out loans to pay for eye-watering rents. It is worth taking a look at our friends and neighbours in the European Union, to compare our dire situation with theirs. Are we the sore thumb of the EU? Or, are circumstances uniformly dire across the board?

The figures are stark; Dublin and Ireland at large, driven by our crippling lack of affordable housing, consistently ranks as one of the most expensive cities to rent in Europe. According to figures published by Eurostat, Ireland rose from being 17% above the EU average in terms of housing costs to 94% within the short span of a decade (2011-2021).

Prices are rising particularly thanks to the post-COVID inflationary boom and the economic fallout from the war in Ukraine. Many of the cheaper single bedroom apartments in Dublin consistently price well over €2000 per month.

Broadly speaking every government in the EU is experiencing challenges providing accommodation.

Portugal is well known as an easier destination for students going on Erasmus to secure affordable accommodation. It has a far lower cost-of-living when compared with the EU’s more Northern States, but even they are feeling the pressure – rents across Portugal went up by 10% last year. The Portuguese government, presumably recognising the danger, announced its highest budget for student accommodation recently, €561 million.

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