A lobby group for the purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) sector has called on the Government to remove VAT from construction costs for approved developments and other supports to boost supply, as new research finds that just one in five students has a bedroom built specifically for their needs.
In a new report, the PBSA Council of Ireland said there are about 49,000 purpose-built student beds in the State serving a full-time student population in excess of 250,000.
The delivery of such accommodation has fallen from 2,611 beds in 2020 to 257 in 2025, while more than 14,000 consented beds nationally have yet to start on site, according to the study, which was produced with Lauder Teacher Research and supported by JLL and the Global Student Accommodation Group (GSA), the largest student accommodation group operating in Ireland.
It comes as students return to campus this month after the summer break. The CAO issued more than 90,000 first-round offers last week, mainly to students who completed the Leaving Certificate this year.
The shortfall in student-specific accommodation leaves college-goers competing with the already-undersupplied private rental market or living at home due to a lack of purpose-built student homes.
More than 14,000 beds nationally have planning permission but have yet to proceed to construction, with over 7,000 of them in Dublin, according to the report. The obstacle is development economics, it said, highlighting that all-in costs now sit between €190,000 and €215,000 per bed in Dublin and between €170,000 and €195,000 in regional cities, while construction costs have risen by 38.7 per cent between the second half of 2020 and the second half of 2025. Financing has become more selective over the same period, it added.
The lobby group has called for the removal of VAT from the construction costs of already consented developments, saying it is the most direct route to improving viability for schemes that already hold permission.
It said that aligning rent-setting, registration and regulatory processes with academic intake points, typically September, since leasing and pricing decisions are made months in advance of occupation, would also boost the sector.
It said that the Government should recognise PBSA as distinct from the general private rented sector in policy design, consistent with the approach taken in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain and Denmark. It also called for the formation of a forum bringing together Government, higher education institutions, local authorities, investors, developers and operators to monitor delivery and identify what is holding schemes up.
“Ireland has growing student numbers, universities with international reach and housing developments that fill every year without fail. Investment of this kind takes a long time to deliver, so regulatory certainty five and 10 years out matters,” said John Jacobs, global head of capital markets at GSA and a founding member of the PBSA Council.
While he said the Government’s National Student Accommodation Strategy, published earlier this year, has been a welcome step in providing that certainty, there are still cost pressures to consider.
“To ensure enough student housing gets built to meet growing demand, we recommend removing the VAT on construction and developments that already have planning permission. This would represent good value for the state, helping unlock homes that might otherwise not get built at all,” he said.