Contesting the financialization of student accommodation: campaigns for the right to housing in Dublin, Ireland

Financialized student accommodation has emerged as an international asset class and is a more visible and politically contentious feature of Irish cities. In this paper, I focus on Dublin which has seen the construction of for-profit Purpose Built Student Accommodation, and rent increases, skyrocket. Contributing to, as well as advancing, debates on rental market financialization, I present changes to student housing provision tied to financialization and explore the consequences for students’ right to housing. I build my argument around qualitative research undertaken between 2019-2021, namely documentary analysis, focus groups, and key informant interviews. I explore how financialization is contested through engagement with the student housing campaign ‘Shanowen Shakedown’. I present the political outcomes of this campaign and demonstrate that whilst it achieved greater housing rights for students, students continue to battle the uneven geographies of financialization. The paper argues student accommodation is implicated in wider transformations of Dublin’s urban housing system and the ongoing financialization of the private rental sector.