As many of you know all too well, the effects of the last year on our children’s education has been dramatic to say the least. While teacher’s try their hardest to keep the ball rolling via remote learning, campuses around the country are closed to most activities. With tools like Zoom or Microsoft Teams, more and more institutions are offering their courses as online learning. How will this affect the student accommodation market in Ireland in the coming months and years?
International Students
While many Irish students have returned home during the pandemic due to campuses being closed and there being no point in paying rental fees when home is only an hour or two away, international students don’t enjoy the same luxury. There are currently over 32,000 international students living and studying in Ireland and while some have returned home over the last 12 months, the outlook is good.
Ireland has been a magnet for international students due to the standard of living and the many internships available to graduates with leading multinational corporations like Facebook, Google and Intel to name a few. Despite current travel restrictions playing an obvious part, student numbers are predicted to continue to rise as the pandemic subsides.
Outlook
As with every industry at the moment, it is difficult to predict with any accuracy how the next 12-18 months will pan out. Despite the increase in online education offerings from major institutions, anyone lucky enough to have experienced college life in their younger years will know that you simply cannot get the same life experience from a laptop as you can from actually being on campus, meeting new people and all the ‘Divilment’ that goes along with life in student accommodation. No doubt as soon as some sense of normalcy returns, so will the students. For now, student accommodation still seems like a solid investment.
As always if you need any advice or help with your property portfolio, please don’t hesitate to contact us here at KPM Group and we’ll be happy to help in any way we can.
