Student accommodation crisis looms in Mayo's county town

CASTLEBAR is facing a student accommodation crisis.

Already, students attending the GMIT campus are finding it 'impossible' to source accommodation, with many traditional units now being rented to non-student residents.

And with Castlebar set to become a technology university town the situation will only get worse, a local councillor has warned.

Section 50 of the Finance Act Tax provided an incentive to developers to build student accommodation, with tax reliefs over a 10-year period.

Now, with the 10 years up, the accommodation can be offered to anyone and Councillor Ger Deere said in Castlebar, a lot of units are being rented out privately and also for AirBnB.

The criteria around student accommodation has to be looked at on a national basis, he told a strategic policy committee meeting that deals with planning.

"We are going to have a huge problem with the emergence of Castlebar as a university town," he warned.

Planning surrounding student accommodation needs to be tightened up.

Castlebar has two student blocks, which have been in operation for over 10 years, and with with it becoming a technology university town, 'we will need a lot of student accommodation'.

"The regulations have to change either in planning or in any new tax incentives that student accommodation is retained solely for that purpose," said Councillor Deere.

"We have a serious problem at the moment in town as quite a number of apartments in Nephin Halls and Hawthorn Village are now occupied by non student tenants and students attending the GMIT are finding it impossible to find accommodation."