It is believed a drop in points for college courses in round two of the CAO offers may be down to the housing crisis.

Points have fallen for almost 50 courses in Trinity, DIT, UCC and UCD, with both Trinity and UCD seeing points go down in more than 20 courses, while UCC offered 16 courses on lower points and DIT offered 12.

Many institutes of technology and regional colleges, by contrast, had just a handful of points reductions or none at all.

According to The Irish Times, universities believe the difficulties faced by students in securing accommodation, particularly in Dublin, could be the reason.

The second round of offers saw more than 2,300 students getting offers after the points reductions.

A fall in points usually indicates that students have either not accepted their first-round offer or deferred a place for a year.