Students looking for a room to rent have been warned of scams, with colleges now routinely charging students a five figure sum for accommodation during the academic year. 

The most expensive accommodation is thought to be Griffith Halls of Residence, which charges €408 per week for its King Deluxe Room, which over a 40 week period comes to €16,320. 

On Newstalk Breakfast, Mary Conway of the Irish Property Owners Association said the market is tough out there for students looking for somewhere to live. 

“We just see trends at the moment is for more and more private property owners are leaving the market,” she said. 

“In turn, that is also impacting on students because if the properties aren't there, there's no room for the students to rent.

“And small property owners, ‘mom and pop landlords’ as they're often known, are the ones that have provided the more affordable end of the market for many years for students. 

“Figures have been published today for on-campus accommodation and I think they vary from something like €6,000 up to €16,000 for an academic year, which is a huge amount of money.”

Scams

With CAO offers out today, Ms Conway warned students looking for accommodation that if “something looks too good to be true, it more than likely is”. 

“Don't ever hand over money without meeting the landlord or the agent - there's a lot of unscrupulous people out there at this time of year,” she said. 

“Many of them aren't even operating in Ireland and you'll get an excuse, ‘Oh, I'm with my sick mother in Spain at the moment’ and, ‘Just pay the deposit and we’ll meet you there on the day.’

“Particularly for students coming from abroad, they pay the money in good faith, thinking that they're getting a proper room and in some cases, the property doesn't even exist.”

Last year, Gardaí said that rental scams typically target young people in August and September, a period when students are at their most vulnerable and desperate to find accommodation. 

Main image: Student accommodation. Picture by: Alamy.com.