The Brunswick Street development will have 21,000m2 of student accommodation.

The Brunswick Street development will have 21,000m2 of student accommodation.

THE GO AHEAD has been given for the construction of a 571-bed student accommodation development in Dublin city.

An Bord Pleanála has granted planning permission for the development at Brunswick St in Dublin 7.

It’s planned that all the rooms in the development will be en-suite with retail space at street level and a supermarket also on site.

The new development is being built by the Dubai-based Global Student Accommodation (GSA) Group and is supported by Ulster Bank.

GSA is already involved with a number of other student developments in the capital and the company says that two of its them will be completed next year.

These include a 400-bedroom development at Mill Street in Dublin 8 and the 491-bedroomed Kavanagh Court in Gardiner Street.

Another GSA-backed refurbishment project at Broadstone Hall in the north inner city has been completed and is now fully occupied for the current college year.

The company’s Dublin development director Aaron Bailey says they are committed to investing €250 million in accommodation here over the next five years.

“We are delighted to be bringing this best in class expertise to key strategic locations in Dublin such as Brunswick Street. This latest approval signals real progress in our long-term plans for investment in Dublin,” Bailey says.

It’s estimated that there are 80,000 full-time students in Dublin’s nine third-level institutions with a further 100,000 students coming to the city each year to learn English.

Student accommodation has struggled to keep up with demand and the wider shortage of rented properties has worsened the problem.