A CORK rental business has made a call-out for people to rent a room in their home to help tackle the accommodation crisis.
HomeHak founder Pat Drinan says there are 45,700 homes in the county with two or more unoccupied bedrooms. He says that the owners of these homes could be earning up to €14,000 annually tax-free to rent a room.
Mr Drinan said healthcare workers and teachers are among those struggling to secure a roof over their heads in various locations around Cork.
‘There is an urgent, bona fide need for accommodation in this country. People come from all over Ireland, and other parts of the world, to fill roles in our health or education systems, IT and pharma industries, or to study and we must do a better job at securing places for them to live,’ said Mr Drinan. ‘When they cannot find homes, these essential workers, talented labour force and students are forced to leave and move to places where they can put a roof over their heads.’
The HomeHak analysis of CSO figures showed that 21% of homes in Cork have at least two more bedrooms than occupants – that equates to 91,400 spare bedrooms.
Mr Drinan said Carrigaline alone has an estimated 8,800 spare rooms. ‘The analysis of Census 2022 data has uncovered that there are over 93,000 houses in Cork alone with at least one spare bedroom in their homes and 45,000 with more than two.’
HomeHak’s database can be used by homeowners and agents to find ideal candidates for particular homes.
