Student accommodation in Northern Ireland: ‘It’s a three bedroomed house, which is about £375 a month. It’s a lot cheaper’

The queue for Laird’s estate agents in Belfast was out the door and down University Street on Tuesday afternoon.

Inside the redbrick building, phones went to voicemail as staff handed over keys and collected deposits from dozens of students moving into new houses around the Queen’s University area.

Demand for student accommodation has soared in Belfast.

“Before Covid, by the beginning of August you would have had 10 to 15 per cent of your properties left right up to A-level results day, that was the profile of lettings for the last 15 to 20 years,” said Dermot Laird, an estate agent for 40 years whose father set up the business at the beginning of the Troubles in 1969.

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“But after lockdown and going into that 2021/22 letting year, accommodation flew off the decks.”

Despite a rent hike over the past year – the average for a private four-bedroom house share in the “Holylands” student area is between £320 to £350 per person per month – Northern Ireland currently has the lowest rent in the UK for student accommodation, according to research carried out by the National Student Accommodation Study.

Student cost of living in the North, while increasing, also remains one of the lowest compared to other university cities, the National Student Money Survey (2022) found.

‘Ripped off’

The lure of cheaper house shares as well guaranteed campus accommodation for first-year student in some universities is among the factors driving rising numbers of students from the Republic to take up places in Northern universities, particularly from border counties.

“We’ve seen a big increase in students coming to us from Donegal and Monaghan in the past couple of years,” said Laird.

“An awful lot have come from Emyvale [a Co Monaghan village] going back nearly 10 years. Because they were able to get accommodation and it worked – as opposed to going up to the big smoke and getting ripped off – it’s been a word-of-mouth thing. It’s their cousins and friends and siblings who are looking for houses up here now.

“They’re telling us the accommodation is much cheaper than in the South. But they’re also saying the big problem is that they can’t get accommodation in Dublin.”

Grace Duffy is from Monaghan and studied psychology at Queen’s University, graduating in July. She is now employed as an undergraduate education officer for Queen’s Students’ Union.

[ Accommodation fees rise in most Irish universitiesOpens in new window ]

Her younger sister, Alice, is also a Queen’s student.

Did accommodation costs impact on Grace’s decision to move to a city where she knew no one four years ago?

“My course was better up here because we did a placement year that I couldn’t do down South. When I was told I would be guaranteed accommodation in my first year at Elms (Queen’s student village), which is a five-minute walk from the campus, that was a huge factor.

‘Huge increase’

“I have friends in all the colleges in Ireland and when they come up to Belfast they love it as you can walk everywhere. They’re paying so much more money and still living a 40-minute bus ride outside the city.

“When I went into first year there was barely anyone I knew from down South… but after Covid it changed. I think Covid actually increased the number of students coming up to Belfast, I’ve seen a huge increase. I think with the different rules around Covid restrictions in the North, more people starting going out here.”

She is worried about rising rents: “When I moved into a private house in my second year I was paying £260 a month. It was cheap compared to Dublin where my friend was paying £1,000 a month. Last year I was paying £300 and this year it’s jumped up to £360… you wouldn’t get anything for under £300 at the moment.”

Figures published by The Irish Times in June showed the number of students from the Republic opting to study in Northern Ireland has almost tripled since 2019; Queen’s University Belfast recorded an increase from 99 new first-year students to 281 between 2019 and 2022. Ulster University said its intake from south of the Border increased from 265 in 2019 to 555 last year across its four campuses at Magee, Coleraine, Jordanstown and Belfast.

Cathal O’Boyle from Castlebar in Co Mayo is going into his second year of a paramedic science degree at Magee in Derry.

“The University of Limerick also had a course but a friend of mine from Dublin posted about the Magee course, and I thought, ‘that’s my in’. They each had different levels and definition of paramedics – I wanted to get to the higher level quicker. I wanted to remain on the island and it was a lot more accessible and cheaper in the long term to come north.”

[ Student accommodation: Without decent housing it’s hard to get a decent educationOpens in new window ]

Living in a student village of 500 apartments, he was guaranteed campus accommodation which was “literally a two-minute walk away” from the university.

“Finance was a big factor in me deciding to study this course in Northern Ireland specifically over England, Scotland or Wales. The Northern Ireland government fund this course, so there’s no tuition fees. Like nursing, we were supposed to be entitled to a bursary but Stormont fell and we didn’t get it.

“In Limerick rent was slightly more expensive due to the sheer demand on general housing in the Republic.”

Cathal is moving into a private house in Derry with two friends next week.

“It’s a three bedroomed house, which is about £375 a month. It’s a lot cheaper for a lot more – we even have our own garden.”