As third-level students prepare for the new academic year in September, the ongoing housing and accommodation crisis across the country shows no sign of letting up.
In Galway, students' unions say demand for rental property is well over double the amount of accommodation that is currently available.
They are calling on the Government to put a cap on purpose-built student accommodation and regulate student digs as a matter of urgency.
International student Bradley Walden is South African and of Irish descent.
He lived in Switzerland with his family, but moved to Ireland to study engineering at the University of Galway because the fees were cheaper than the UK.
However, finding a place to stay was another matter as college accommodation was fully booked and there were no digs available.
Bradley spent the first two months in Ireland living in a hostel.
He said: "I'm 21 and when I first moved to Ireland, I was stuck living in a hostel near Eyre Square. It was really tough moving to a new country by myself, living in a hostel and having no personal space, sharing a room with anywhere from four to 12 people every night, living out of a suitcase.
"I didn't realise how much of a toll it was taking on me until I moved out. It was really tough finding somewhere to rent. I must have emailed 60 or 70 landlords, from adverts on Facebook groups and through the university accommodation advisory service.
"And I think, I maybe got five or ten replies from those emails, and they all said sorry, it's unavailable. I only ended up getting one viewing, which was the place that I'm lucky enough to be staying in now.
"It was €850 for the first nine months of the lease and then when I renewed my lease in May, the landlord increased the rent to €900. There are four other tenants renting with me and some are international students like me."
The University of Galway has 674 new beds coming on stream this year with prices ranging as high as €962 per month in the new Dunlin Village.
The cheapest options on campus start at over €400 in Corrib Village.
Most rooms are averaging €800, which is similar to the rent in nearby Goldcrest Village.
All the student residences are now fully booked and the university said it will not be increasing prices this year.
University of Galway President Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh said: "The accommodation crisis is a national challenge and here at the University of Galway we've been building more accommodation.
"As well as the 674 new beds we have also reduced rates on over 500 beds and maintained rates on about two thirds of the remaining so over 90% of our beds are cheaper or the same rate as they were three or four years ago.
"So, increasing supply is critical. We're seeing high demand for the 'high-end' accommodation, but we also recognise that there's very many students who can't afford it.
"We're keen to support those students and have other accommodation available. So, there will be a variety and good value and more affordable accommodation on campus."
University of Galway Students' Union President Dean Kenny said a lot of the accommodation is still not affordable.
"While we welcome any and all accommodation, we feel that these luxury high-end accommodation blocks that are cropping up across the country are not tailored towards students needs.
"Students want clean, basic, affordable accommodation. We'll be calling for the next accommodation that the University of Galway build to be in more in line with its strategy for affordable accommodation and we're looking at various different things like modular accommodation along the lines of what they do in America, where you have dormitories.
"So, we'd be hoping to keep it as cheap as possible because students are being priced to the hilt with the cost-of-living crisis," he said.
Dean called for Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris and the Government to implement legislation targeting digs.
"At the minute we're seeing horrific stories up and down the country of students in owner-occupied accommodation, not being given access to kitchen facilities, only being given access between 7am and 9am in the morning, being booted out on a Friday, welcomed back on a Sunday and their rights are not being protected," he said.
"We urgently need proper digs legislation to protect students as tenants in owner occupied accommodation," he added.
Siobhan Kelleher from Co Galway and Nora Barry from Co Meath are second year psychology students.
They cannot find a place to stay as short-term lets continue to dominate the city's rental market.
Nora had been renting in the purpose-built Goldcrest Village at University of Galway last year.
"I'm from Kells in Meath so I don't really have a choice of commuting," Nora said.
"My hand was kind of forced to pay extremely high prices. I was in Goldcrest Village when I first came to Galway which was €800 a month and really hard to keep up with," she said.
"I mean €800, you couldn't be doing that for years at a time. It was clean, secure, but €800. I worked part time to help out my parents to pay for it, but it was a lot of pressure on them."
Siobhan is from Tuam and was making the trip in and out to college most days.
"I was commuting from Tuam so it was an hour either way every day with the last bus at 9.10pm.
"It was kind of just a lot of waking up, going to college, going straight home. It was really hard because you're making friends, but you aren't getting to experience college life.
"It was also affecting my study time and lectures and tuition. I've been looking for a place to rent all year and we go to viewings all the time.
"Sometimes we get so close, but a working professional gets in ahead of us. If you look on [property rental website] Daft at the minute everywhere is like at least €2,000 and up to €3,000 per month for a house," she said.
Nora agrees with her friend.
She said: "It's so brutal trying to find a place because everyone is in the same situation, we all have sob stories trying to get our foot in the door."
"And you're just trying to get on your feet and we're so young, just out of secondary school and faced with this huge responsibility trying to find a house to live in, that's affordable."
Bradley believes more should be done to ease the plight of students.
"I think though there's definitely more that can be done from the university itself and definitely from the Government of Ireland to support the thousands of students around the country in situations like mine and much worse," he said.
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