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THE IRISH PROPERTY Owners’ Association (IPOA) has joined other calls for caution for students to look out for signs of accommodation fraud ahead of the upcoming academic year.
The latest warning, from the landlord representative group, advocates for “heightened vigilance” among students who are seeking accommodation this year, in a dwindling market.
The IPOA said that the lack of available student accommodation is due “many property owners choosing to sell up and leave the rental market” because of “unfavourable conditions”.
The property owners’ representative body suggests that the shortage has “opened the student rental market” to criminals attempted to scam artists.
However, a separate warning from An Garda Síochána suggests that criminals are aware of how precarious the situation is and know who and where to strike.
Gardaí last week warned students “to be wary of rental scams” after its economic crime branch found around one-third of all accommodation fraud occurs during August and September each year – when students are most desperate for a place to stay as the semester begins.
Additionally around a half of all rental scams also take place in Dublin, where only one student-specific accommodation unit is advertised to rent on property portal Daft.ie as of today.
The economic crime branch also found that over half of all victims to rental scams are aged under-25, leading the student cohort to be most vulnerable to this crime. There was a 38% increase in rental scams in 2022, compared to 2021.
Housing charity Threshold, in partnership with various national students’ unions, also warned against rental scams in a new campaign. The charity say false websites, fakes accounts on social media and dummy replica websites of popular renting portals are becoming common methods that criminals use to scam students.
John-Mark McCafferty, the charity’s CEO said: “Threshold is increasingly aware of a surge of rental scams, particularly ahead of the academic period, with students unfortunately being easy targets. In a highly competitive, low supply rental market, scams are on the rise.”
The charity were particularly targeting international students, who are attempting to find accommodation before the arrive in Ireland, as Vice President for Welfare of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) Colette Murphy told The Journal last week that scams are common place especially international students.
Murphy said: “In terms of prevalence – yes, it’s very prevalent among international students.”
According to the Irish Council for International Students (ICOS) a recent survey determined that one in seven international students who travelled to Ireland fell victim to a rental scam.
Laura Harmon, Executive Director of the group said: “These students are often more vulnerable as English is not their first language and they usually don’t have relations or friends they can stay with in the short-term while looking for a place to live.
“We encourage all students to read and heed all the advice in this campaign, and to contact the various channels provided if they have concerns or queries.”
Murphy said last week that domestic students usually have much more freedom in their choices and can spot a red flag easier, compared to students who are attempting to find somewhere to stay from outside of the country.
McCafferty said that it is important that students and all renters are aware of scams and take “appropriate actions to prevent themselves from falling into these traps”.
All three warnings came with preventative measures to that students should take so they do not fall victim to rental scams. All three warnings advised tenants to always inspect the property in person, before determining and finalising any lease.
Additionally, the warning from the gardaí said that “ideally” the landlord should be registered with the Residential Tenancies Board and the rent match the average price for location in the area.
Threshold and An Garda Síochána both warned students against paying through cash, and advised that all transactions for rent should be done through bank transfer, as a a renter will would have a higher chance of recovering their money from your bank.
Gardaí go further and suggest not to transfer money via Revolut and do not send funds by cryptocurrency or to a random PayPal address.
“Pay in a way that is traceable and/or refundable,” their warning added.
Threshold, along with the USI and ICOS, both advise students to look out for “red flags” such as very low rent, a landlord living abroad and providing foreign bank account details or inconsistent information.
Additionally, IPOA says that prospective tenants should look out for rent prices that are “too good to be true” and offers through messaging services like WhatsApp.
Chair of the association Mary Conway said: “While it is disheartening that these precautions have become necessary, the presence of unscrupulous actors across various sectors, not just in the rental market, necessitates that people are ultra-vigilant when paying deposits.
Conway added that the property owners group are committed to protecting the reputation of real landlords and protecting future tenants from fraud.
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Mass immigration reduces the amount of accommodation available to Irish people….
@Voice of Reason:
And the only way we will solve it will be mass immigration, that’s what we did before.
@Voice of Reason:
Irish people are the only ones who can’t get accommodation? Go give your head a wobble
@Alan Dempsey: I would suggest the main responsibility of the Irish Government is to look after the Irish people. I know this is quite a controversial statement. However 50 years ago you would have been laughed at if you suggested people should arrive in Ireland and get a free house and free money.
@Voice of Reason: mass deportations are needed
@Voice of Reason: I remember the Vietnamese “Boat People” coming to Ireland nearly 50 years ago. Numbers were small, but the same racists like yourself were shouting the usual “look after our own” and “charity begins at home” guff.
@Voice of Reason: so will other countries be sending all their Irish back here then?…or is it we are allowed to go there but no one is allowed here?
@SYaxJ2Ts: Wow, you call me a “racist”.
That’s really going to solve the housing crisis.
@Voice of Reason: I don’t expect my comment to solve the housing crisis
@SYaxJ2Ts: “numbers were small”. Exactly that!
@Voice of Reason: the country is unable to cope with the housing crisis, immigration is worsening it there’s no denying that but unfortunately people aren’t allowed to say that so just shut up and let it worsen and worsen and we’ll sit talking about it for generations to come,well to all you people who say yes to immigration hang you’re heads in shame as you’re children and theyre’s after will either have to earn a fortune to live here or head abroad while they get replaced,i understand people want to come here and no one is against that at all but unfortunately unless immigration is slowed down and this is seriously dealt with first they’ll suffer same faith as us with they’re kids aswel but stupid is as stupid does let it worsen ignore its worked well so far let’s keep going
@Lorne Malvo: and even still, the racists were saying look after our own first.
@Voice of Reason: you saying the problem will go away if all the immigrant leave and the millions of Irish people living abroad come back home?
@Jon John: Yeah lets get rid of all far right extremists. A far bigger threat to Irish society than any immigrant.
I think that landlords are very careful who they let to, they are inclined now to rent to people that have professional references that have stable monthly income and are recommended by previous Landlords.
@Áine G: exactly, no foreigners, no families, no pets, no kids. Working male professionals are the best option as a landlord
@Jon John:
You have never been a landlord.
Single males would be at the very bottom of my list
@P.J. Nolan: too flighty, personally I would want a keeper, a situation I don’t have to deal with constantly, seems obvious.
@Jon John: Nonsense! I only ever rent to so-called “foreigners”. Experience has taught me that Irish people are the worst tenants by far.
If s home owner gets 500 Euro a month for 9 months for a student or 14000 Euro a year for a Ukrainian it’s a no brainier. I thought we left NINA behind in the UK in the 90s but it’s alive and well in Ireland, thanks to our EU puppet government.
@Brendan O’Connell: just good business
Make bedsits illegal (forget that the generation who built this country lived in bedsits while in college).
Villify landlords.
Prioritise deadbeat welfare neverplpyed in the cities.
Then wonder why there’s nowhere to live!
HAHA
150k illegal immigrants cause an issue too but that’s the Irish un government policy for ya. You will own nothing and be happy. Ve ave penayrated ze cabinets.
@James murphy: they should be loaded on cattle ships and dumped back from whatever hellhole they came from
@James murphy: who are these 150K illegal immigrants?
@James murphy: how many illegal Irish in Australia and USA…they have housing issues like us.
@John Terry: yes so blind leading the blind follow suit don’t dare use initiative and act to try to tackle the problem now by at least slowing immigration and catch up with the population with housing supply and demand,when the sink overflows pour more water on and wonder it’s worked well so far
For those of you who don’t remember NINA = No Irish Need Apply
No problems for the illegal Brazilians getting accommodation
@John finn: Probably because they make excellent tenants.
Can I just say journal.ie is really good for allowing a whole spectrum of opinions in the comment sections.
The biggest “unfavourable” factor is that landlords can get more money from the government for accommodating migrants than they can get for students, tourists, or from the HSE for caring for the elderly.
One more consequence of this hopeless government’s incompetence in losing control of the international protection system.
Can’t wait to turn RTE now and hear some bleeding heart story from an economic migrant that passed through 15 perfectly safe countries to plant a tent in Dublin where there’s a shed load of leaching, preaching lefties making a living out of peddling this “legal obligation” nonsense about how we have to house and feed the world’s poor as they take 52% of our wages, tax our children on their inheritances of the assets we bought with the 48% they let us keep and leave our children without hope of owning anything while handing the tax money out hand over fist for nothing in return. And then the lad is heading home on holidays once his residency and welfare is secured.
We are being laughed at.
Students in Galway turfed out so as migrants can be acommadated . A state sponsored scam.
” where only one student-specific accommodation unit is advertised to rent on property portal Daft.ie as of today. ”
No wonder scammers are making money. One, i repeat one student accommodation available to rent on daft.ie
This country is heading for the bin
Oh thank the lord for these hero landlords. All they’re missing are capes , so concerned they are.
@Thrust in 3D: us landlords are the best people in society
@Jon John: landlord. Teenage troll more like.
Best time in Irish history to be a landlord. By “unfavourable conditions”, what they really mean is that it’s a good time to sell and they may not get the insane prices they’re looking for a few years down the road.
@Nicholas James O’Donnell:
If you are saying its a good time to get out of being a landlord (it is!) surely that in itself means it’s an unfavourable time to be a landlord?
The whole thing is getting out of hand
I rent and I usually don’t rent to Irish as they have a tendency to trash your property like pigs.
@Lock up feral Irish youth: just like the landlords of old! In this case, I think most of us would be happy to see history repeat itself…
Ukrainians
It’s an effective way to ensure that only the children of the privileged can go to college.
Absolutely insane, what’s happening to this country.
ffs journal, close the comments
Cut the landlord tax on renting a house by 50%.
Job done.
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