Workshops geared towards turbo-charging student accommodation in Limerick

WORKSHOPS are to be held between council, the Land Development Agency and Limerick’s three third-level institutions in a bid to ramp up the amount of student accommodation locally.

Sarah Newell, a senior executive officer on council responsible for its housing strategy, confirmed the move at this month’s metropolitan district meeting.

She was responding to a question from Social Democrats councillor Shane Hickey-O’Mara, who asked for an update on the development of initiatives for student housing across Limerick.

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Ms Newell referenced the talks with the Land Development Agency, whose remit is to turbo-charge housing development on public lands.

A city-wide strategy is proposed for student accommodation.

“This strategy will include a number of workshops and exploratory discussions with the main third level institutions of University of Limerick (UL), Mary Immaculate College and Technological University of the Shannon over the coming months,” the council official wrote.

On top of this, the local authority is also preparing to issue a call-out to seek companies which may be interested in developing student housing on council-owned land, Ms Newell added.

Labour councillor Elena Secas has called for UL to provide more student accommodation on the land it owns itself.

“We have a housing crisis, so many students commute every day as they do not have a base in Limerick. UL is a landowner. They have plenty of land available. It makes sense for UL as landowners to develop on-campus student accommodation. It will also help the overall traffic issue we are experiencing in the area,” said the City East councillor.

She called on council staff to be “more pro-active” in seeking out the third-level colleges to provide this.

A spokesperson for UL said they are “conscious of the shortage of student accommodation” and is “continuing to work together with Government, our partners in Limerick and the wider sector nationally to find solutions to this issue”.

“UL is actively reviewing both medium and long-term solutions to increase the supply of student housing,” the spokesperson added.

An off-campus accommodation website, known as Studentpad which lists availability, shows 131 rooms available across 81 properties, they added. They also highlighted a “significant increase” in off-campus spots year-on-year.