Warning that house crisis will hamper city’s growth

The shortage of accommodation in Galway has passed crisis point, according to a TD who has called for sweeping changes to the planning system.

With hundreds of people often enquiring about a single house advertised for rent, the squeeze on available properties threatens to hinder the city’s economic progress, according to Galway West TD Noel Grealish.

He said the shortage of available places to stay also posed a huge problem for the more than 25,000 students returning to college at NUI Galway and GMIT in the coming weeks.

Now, he is calling on the Government to set up a task force to tackle the problem, and bring in new measures to fast-track the planning process for the construction of new houses.

Deputy Grealish warned that unless something is done to increase the supply of accommodation generally in Galway, the city could soon start to suffer in terms of its ability to attract inward investment and jobs.

“This will have knock-on effects, there is no doubt about that. It will impact on Galway’s ability to attract international companies if the workers they would hope to employ can’t find a place to live.

“At the moment, once a place goes on the market for rent, you could have hundreds of people enquiring about that single property,” he said.

Deputy Grealish said that the coming weeks would see the shortage of accommodation brought into sharp focus with thousands of students returning to or starting college.

“I am aware that NUI Galway has been ringing auctioneers, even looking for commercial buildings, to see can they be converted into student accommodation,” he revealed.

And in the Merlin Park area, Gleann na Rí, a complex that was purpose-built to cater for students attending GMIT, was now being let out to non-students as the ten-year tax break facilitating its availability to students was at an end.

“This is a complex with 220 apartments in it, that had housed an average of 2-3 students – that means there’s less accommodation for up to 600 students in the coming academic year,” said Deputy Grealish.

“The whole situation has gone beyond a crisis.”

For more on the city’s accommodation crisis, see this week’s Galway City Tribune