Student accommodation strategy to ‘unlock’ college-owned land for development

By Cillian Sherlock, Press Association

The Government is encouraging private developers to use college-owned land to deliver purpose-built student accommodation, as the further education minister said the country needs 42,000 additional beds by 2035.

The National Student Accommodation Strategy 2026-2035 sets out “a multi-annual plan to urgently deliver new student accommodation”, including through State-financed, purpose-built student accommodation on public or private lands.

The stategy, which is designed to deal with affordability and viability of supply, projects a requirement of 42,000 beds by 2035 – including an existing deficit of 15,000 beds.

The Department of Further Education expects to include 10,000 “digs”-style rent-a-room agreements in the 42,000 target.

The scheme sets out a plan to provide land owned by higher education instutitions (HEIs) to developers under a long-term licence.

Further education minister James Lawless said the approach was an “innovative measure” to unlock “significant” State lands.

He said HEIs had “significant land banks” around the country that were “untapped”.

The strategy says this would be done with “necessary safeguards” and could reduce cost and enhance the attractiveness to the developer.

Technological Universities have already entered into licence agreements to facilitate the development of educational buildings on land they own through public-private partnerships.

HEIs have secured planning permission for on-campus, purpose-built student accommodation of around 2,359 beds and are “actively developing” further proposals which could be advanced through private sector delivery, the plan said.

Lawless said: “This will be done through a public private partnership-type (PPP) model, where we make those public lands available to private sector investment under terms that include the land always remains in the possession of the State, but that the private investment can come in, build out at scale student accommodation on those sites and in a way that guarantees occupancy for the students.”

The minister said it was “appropriate” to “use every lever at our disposal” given that there is “known private sector interest” and a situation where 15,000 beds with planning permission are not being delivered due to viability issues.

The HEIs would have a nomination agreement, which would allow them to specify a minimum number of beds they would take up within each development.

The minister said this could, for example, be between 75-90 per cent of the beds on site with the remainder going to staff or other frontline workers.

Lawless said 53 suitable sites around the country had already been identified.

On affordability, Lawless said €176 million in new money had been committed for student supports including bursaries and grants.

He added that students would also benefit from recent rental reforms.

The scheme highlights that there is €250 million in capital exchequer funding for student accommodation between 2023-2030, and a €14,000 rent-a-room relief scheme for homeowners.

Asked about the yearly delivery under the overall strategy, Lawless said there were currently no annual targets as part of the plan.

He said the scheme would be rolled out on a phased basis starting with Dublin, Cork and Galway, followed by Limerick, Waterford and Athlone and then other regions.