Ireland Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) Market Report 2026
Comprehensive Analysis: €1.42B Total Addressable Market at the Intersection of Structural Undersupply and Institutional Capital
Market at a Glance
Key performance indicators for the Irish purpose-built student accommodation sector
Market Size by Segment
From €459M organized to €1.42B total including private rental
Note: Total market 3.1x larger than organized sector alone. Private rental represents conversion opportunity.
Weekly Rental Rates by City (€)
Dublin commands 25% premium over regional cities
Occupancy Performance by City (2025/26)
Crisis-level occupancy across all markets, 98%+ confirms accommodation emergency
Supply-Demand Analysis by City
Bed gap analysis across Ireland's major student markets
| City | Students | Current Beds | Bed Gap | Students/Bed | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dublin | 140,115 | 29,113 | 17,125 | 4.8 | 🔴 CRITICAL |
| Cork | 40,000 | 4,000 | 9,200 | 10.0 | 🔴 CRITICAL |
| Galway | 38,000 | 6,000 | 6,540 | 6.3 | 🟡 HIGH |
| Limerick | 28,000 | 3,500 | 5,740 | 8.0 | 🟡 HIGH |
| Waterford | 18,500 | 800 | 5,305 | 23.1 | 🔴 CRITICAL |
| Maynooth | 16,110 | 1,400 | 3,916 | 11.5 | 🟡 HIGH |
Note: the ~48K bed shortfall headlined in this report is the sum of the Bed Gap column above across the 6 mapped cities (Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford, Maynooth), 47,826 beds. It is a different measure from the national gap of about 103,000 beds shown in the Demand Analysis, which is total accommodation demand less total organized supply nationwide. The two are not interchangeable. The Students column is catchment-level and includes private and specialist providers (for example Dublin Business School, Griffith College, National College of Ireland and RCSI) that sit outside the Higher Education Authority's universities and technological universities series; it therefore sums above the 278,880 HEA figure and is not a subset of it.
Adopted assumption: 45% of domestic students need accommodation away from home, plus 100% of international students, giving 149,971 beds of total demand
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