Landlords in Cork city have been inundated with calls from young people looking to rent student housing for a summer of partying.

Last summer, people living near University College Cork warned that young people had snapped up student homes over the summer after it became clear that traditional summer trips were not an option.

At the time, residents told Newstalk reporter Barry Whyte that parties involving up to 60 people would last for days in certain houses.

On Lunchtime Live this afternoon, local resident’s association chair Catherine Clancy said landlords are already getting calls from young people looking to rent the homes as soon as the college term ends.

“We have some very responsibly landlords here and they have been in contact with us saying they are alarmed with the number of young people calling,” she said.

“They are getting 10 to 15 calls a day from young people who want to rent out the house for the summer.

“They are not coming here to work, they are not coming here for essential services, they are coming here to party to put it bluntly.”

"Havoc"

She said “hundreds and hundreds” of young people arrived in the area last summer, "supported and financed by their parents.”

“They would probably have been the students that would have gone on J1s to America or that under normal circumstances,” she said.

“They were very young and they caused havoc in our area.

“We had parties continuously in the houses. One particular house last summer had 17 COVID-19 lockdown parties.”

Landlord fines

She called for any landlord renting out a home that becomes a party house this summer to face fines.

“Last year, some of the landlords might have been caught out because it hadn’t happened before,” she said.

“But the landlord now who has a young person, 17, 18 ,19-years-old, who is not coming here to work or for essential services – they know exactly what they are doing, they are renting these houses out for parties and these landlords now need to be included in the prosecutions and the fining.”

"Only here to party"

She said the rentals are “quite lucrative” for the landlords with many charging up to €150 per person for the houses.

“What you will have, in the height of a pandemic, when we are all told to stay at home and stay safe, is you will have up to, at least, eight young people from different households coming in to rent these houses that have, by and large, one bathroom,” she said.

“So, they are sharing these facilities that are not fit for purpose at the best of times but definitely not fit for purpose during a pandemic.

“What they risk is prolonging the lockdown for all of us.”

She noted that there is no issue with the UCC students who are renting out the houses during the college year; however, she said the summer groups are “only coming here to party and it needs to be stopped.”

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