Where you study can change what you pay for a room by hundreds of euro a month. Using RTB-registered tenancy data, here's what students are actually paying near every Irish college in 2026 — ranked, charted, and compared.
Student accommodation is one of the biggest worries for incoming students and their parents — and for good reason. Ireland is in the middle of a housing crisis, room rents have climbed sharply over the past five years, and the gap between the cheapest and most expensive college towns is widening every year.
This guide breaks the numbers down using real RTB-registered tenancy data. We built the Student Rent Checker for exactly this — a free tool to compare room rents near 35 Irish colleges side by side, with 5-year trend data. This article uses the same data, and embeds the tool below so you can run your own comparisons without leaving the page.
Data last updated: June 2026 · Source: RTB-registered tenancies
The national average room rent near an Irish college is €565 a month — and prices range dramatically depending on where you study.
What does the €565 figure represent? It's the estimated cost of a standard double room in a shared house. The RTB publishes whole-property rents, so we divide by three (a typical 3-bed house share) to estimate the per-room cost. A box room may be 10–15% less; an ensuite or larger room 10–15% more. These figures are room-only — they don't include bills.
Prices vary enormously by location. Dublin sits roughly 35–40% above the national average, while western and north-western towns like Letterkenny, Castlebar and Sligo are 25–40% below it. That spread is the single most important thing to understand about student housing in Ireland: the college you choose largely sets your housing budget.
Source: myroom.ie Student Rent Checker, based on RTB-registered tenancy data.
Pick 2–4 colleges to compare rents side by side with 5-year trend data. It opens on Trinity College Dublin versus University of Galway — swap in your own colleges, or switch to All Rankings to see all 35 at once.
Compare colleges side by sidePick 2–4 of 35 Irish colleges. See estimated room rent over the last 5 years.
How we estimate room rent. RTB data covers whole-property rents. We divide by 3 (typical 3-bed house share) to estimate per-room cost. Actual rents vary by property type, housemates and exact location within each county.
Room type. Estimates reflect a standard double room in a shared house. Box rooms may be 10–15% less; ensuite or larger rooms 10–15% more.
Bills. RTB data is room-only pricing — it does not include bills.
Source: RTB / ESRI Rent Index (2020–2025) · Residential Tenancies Board · CSO PxStat
All 35 colleges, rankedCheapest to most expensive estimated room rent for 2025. Same-county colleges share an estimate.
Find your collegeSearch by college or town to see its estimated room rent and how it compares to the national average.
Open the full Student Rent Checker →
Tell room providers what you're looking for, your budget and your move-in date — then share your profile link in your WhatsApp and Facebook housing groups. Homeowners and landlords renting a room can find you and reach out directly.
Estimated monthly room rent by college town for 2025, derived from county-level RTB whole-property rents divided by three. Colleges in the same county share an estimate — so the Dublin universities all sit at the same price point.
For all 35 institutions individually — plus live figures and 5-year trends — use the Student Rent Checker above.
The cheapest places to study are clustered in the west and north-west, home to the ATU and TUS multi-campus networks. If keeping costs down is your priority, these are worth a serious look:
Donegal's college town and the most affordable in the country. Little large-scale on-campus supply, so private rooms and digs are the norm. ATU Letterkenny rooms
Very affordable with a small student population, so rooms tend to be easier to find than in the big cities. ATU Mayo rooms
A compact, walkable town that offers good value and a strong student scene. ATU Sligo rooms
Tipperary's campus towns are among the cheapest in the south.
A central midlands location keeps rents well below the national average.
South-east, growing fast, but still noticeably more affordable than the cities.
At the other end of the scale, the cities — Dublin first and foremost — carry the highest room rents, driven by large student populations competing for a limited supply of rooms.
By far the most expensive, and the hardest market for room availability. Dublin rooms
Commuter-belt prices push Maynooth University well above the other non-Dublin universities.
Rising fast, especially in the student corridors near campus. UCC rooms
Strong, year-round student demand in a small city keeps prices firm. University of Galway rooms
Trinity, UCD, DCU, TU Dublin and RCSI compete for a limited supply of rooms — and the result is the highest student rents in Ireland. Rooms closest to Trinity and UCD sit at the top of that range.
Because of those prices, many Dublin students don't live in the city centre at all. The DART and Luas make it realistic to commute from cheaper suburbs, or even from Maynooth and surrounding counties. Our Dublin rooms page breaks the city into neighbourhood cards so you can see how prices and transport change from area to area.
University of Galway alone has more than 18,000 students, and that demand — concentrated in a small, walkable city — keeps prices firm year-round. Newcastle is closest to campus, while Salthill draws students who want the seaside lifestyle.
One Galway quirk worth planning around: tourism. Demand and prices peak over the summer, so lock in a room for the academic year before the tourist season tightens supply. See University of Galway, ATU Galway and the wider Galway rooms page.
Bishopstown, Glasheen and Wilton are the key student areas, clustered around the UCC campus. MTU adds further demand along the Bishopstown corridor, so rooms in that part of the city move quickly.
Cork rents have been rising fast, particularly close to campus, so it pays to start your search early. Browse the UCC rooms page and the broader Cork rooms page.
The University of Limerick (16,000+ students) and TUS Limerick are the main drivers, and Castletroy — right beside the UL campus — is the established student hub.
Limerick also has a large pharma and tech employment base, which means a stable, year-round rental market rather than one that empties out over the summer. That tends to make rooms a little easier to find than in tourism-driven cities. See listings on the Limerick rooms page.
Atlantic Technological University runs a multi-campus network across the west and north-west — Letterkenny, Sligo, Castlebar and Galway — and these are some of the most affordable places to study in the entire country. If your course is offered at one of them, your housing budget stretches a great deal further than it would in Dublin or Cork.
The same is true of the TUS and SETU campus towns — Athlone, Thurles, Clonmel, Ennis, Carlow, Wexford and Kilkenny — which mostly sit comfortably below the national average. The trade-off is a smaller rental market, so there are fewer rooms going at any one time; starting your search early matters even more in a small town than in a big city. Explore ATU Letterkenny, ATU Sligo, ATU Mayo and ATU Galway.
The national average room rent has risen roughly 35% since 2020 — but the steepest increases are not where most people expect.
In percentage terms, it's the cheaper rural towns that have risen fastest, a catch-up effect from a low base:
The steepest rise of any college town in the country over five years.
Both western towns climbing fast off a low starting point.
The slowest of the major locations — but from an already very high base.
Don't mistake fast percentage growth for high prices. Letterkenny rose fastest in percentage terms but is still the cheapest college town in cash terms. Dublin rose more slowly, yet the absolute euro gap between Dublin and the cheaper towns has actually widened — because a smaller percentage of a much bigger number is still a large increase.
See the full 5-year trend for any college in the Student Rent Checker.
The best-value rooms close to campus are usually gone by August. Early searching is the single biggest thing you can control.
A 15-minute cycle can save you €100–€200 a month versus a room right beside the gates.
RTB-based figures are room-only — budget an extra €80–€120 a month for electricity, heating and broadband if they're not.
Use the Student Rent Checker to benchmark your college, or the Rent-a-Room Calculator for fair market rents by county and room type.
Sharing can cut your costs by 30–40% — a big difference over a full academic year.
If you go home at weekends, term-time-only arrangements are common in Cork, Galway and Limerick and can save a lot.
Browse verified listings — and potential housemates — on myroom.ie. No login required to browse.
Homeowners taking in a student can earn up to €14,000 tax-free under the Rent-a-Room scheme.
The national average is approximately €565 per month for a room in a shared house near an Irish college, based on RTB-registered tenancy data across 35 institutions. This varies significantly by location — from around €330 per month in Letterkenny to roughly €770 per month in Dublin.
Letterkenny (ATU Donegal) is the most affordable, with an estimated room rent of around €330 per month. Castlebar (ATU Mayo) and Sligo (ATU Sligo) follow at roughly €343 and €351 per month. You can compare all 35 college towns side by side using our free Student Rent Checker.
Dublin is the most expensive student city in Ireland, with estimated room rents of around €770 per month — and rooms closest to Trinity College and UCD often command more. Suburbs accessible by DART or Luas can be more affordable, which is why many students commute from outside the city centre or from neighbouring counties.
Start searching in May or June for the following September. Popular areas near major universities fill up fast. By August, the best-value rooms close to campus are usually gone, so early searching makes a real difference to both price and choice.
Use the MyRoom.ie Student Rent Checker to compare average rents near your college with other institutions across Ireland, including 5-year trend data. You can also use our Rent-a-Room Calculator, which uses official RTB data to show fair market rents by county and room type.
It varies. Roughly half of student room listings include bills such as electricity, heating, broadband and bins. The rent figures based on RTB data are room-only and do not include bills, so if bills are not included, budget an extra €80–€120 per month on top of your rent.
Free to cite and republish with a link to myroom.ie. Journalists, students and site owners are welcome to use these figures — please credit MyRoom.ie and link back so readers can reach the live data.
Disclaimer: Figures are indicative estimates derived from RTB-registered whole-property rents (divided by three for a per-room estimate) and are room-only, excluding bills. They are provided for general guidance and do not constitute financial, legal or professional advice. Always verify current prices before making any decisions.