W2B-014 Student life-2.txt
bold> it's tidy, it's cheap - it doesn't exist

Good houses are rare - and prices are rocketing. John Lappin looks at student accommodation

YES, there is a housing crisis this year and no, we can't give you any numbers to prove it. There is always a rush for flats and houses in September, increasingly the underlying stresses in the student market.

If you are a first-year you should be alright, having priority with the universities. If you are not, there is a greater chance you will be sleeping on a friend's sofa or commuting from home in the back of beyond.

Statistic are hard to find but the time it takes to get a flat gets longer each year. Estate agents have had to cope with students coming to their offices in tears because they can't find a flat. Welfare offices are under more strain while the Student Housing Association Cooperatiave (Shac), a non-profit-making housing organisation, has a waiting list stretching back to April in Belfast and to February in Coleraine.

The days when if you were stuck at the start of term it was because you had stayed on two weeks too long at your summer job in America are long over.

If you do find yourself without a roof over your head what can you do? The first thing is not to panic and make sure you keep in contact with your welfare officer and university accommodation office. But don't just depend on things being done for you. Keep looking at accommodation notice boards and in newspapers, ask your friends - many houses and rooms can be let through word of mouth.

As for that little flat in Stranmillis with central heating, economy 7, microwave, jacuzzi, satellite TV, cocktail bar and charming balcony compete with climbing roses, and all for £ 80 a month, some Tory student at Queen's probably got daddy to buy it for him.

Queen's Welfare Officer Alison Ahern was seeing 15 students a day a week before term began. She found an average price of £ 110 a month for a single room but with more students than ever paying from £ 85 to £ 110 a month for sharing a room.

She said: "We 've just got the database up and running. We 're appealing to landlords to send us information about vacancies so we can advertise it as soon as possible. I let people use the phone so they can phone up quickly and let them know their rights as tenants but I can't build houses."

Accommodation manager at Queen's, Conor Brown, had no worries about housing first-years but conceded that there was no enough student housing in Belfast.

"The university intake is not as high as it was last year. At this time of year we specialise in first-year students. My impression is that this year is not as bad a former years," he said.

At the University of Ulster, Jordanstown and Magee seem to have less of a problem but many UUJ students choose to live in Belfast, increasing pressures on the city's housing stock.

There are difficulties in Coleraine, highlighted by Shac, who has encountered problems with rising student numbers and slower student turnover. The recession meant fewer jobs in their home towns or abroad so students worked near campus over the summer and held on to their houses.

Another problem is that some bed and breakfasts insist that students clear out belongings at weekends and holidays to make way for other guests.

Jan O'Neil, speaking for Shac in Coleraine, said new buildings were needed to squeeze the worst of the landlords out of the market but added that there were often objections to planning applications in the area.

The greatest squeeze seems to be in Belfast. Houses are in demand not just from students but from former students now working in Belfast. In other cases landlords have sold up because the Housing Executive is enforcing multiple occupation regulations.

Renovation has priced many houses and flats out of the student market. The background to this has been increasing student number in the last few years at both universities while new building programmes have not matched the increase, putting more pressures on the existing stock. Finally many English-based insurance companies have withdrawn cover from student houses and this has had some impact this side of the Irish Sea.

Ray Cashell, director of Shac in Belfast, says: "There are a lot of different angles on this but at this stage we 're talking about a shortfall of several hundred people who have not an answer to their housing problem. People will tend to find somewhere but somewhere is often sleeping on a settee or doubling in a room."
