WITH NEW BUILDS, changing legislation and an ongoing rent crisis, it can be tricky to stay on top of Ireland’s property news.

With that in mind, every Friday we give you our five-point property news round-up, profiling the most significant real estate updates from the previous days.

Here’s what’s been going on this week…

Source: Bibby Maritime

1. Is a multi-room barge the answer to student housing woes?

Galway students could soon be calling the city’s harbour their home, thanks to an innovative proposal which would open up two multi-level barges as student accommodation.

Winters Property Management, Ireland’s largest student accommodation manager, is exploring the use of high-end barges via a Stockholm-based company. The Bibby Stockholm and the Bibby Bergen contain 402 ensuite bedrooms between them as well as recreation rooms and laundry facilities.

Source: RollingNews.ie

2. Landlords exploiting legislation loopholes to raise rents

Landlords are evicting tenants and re-decorating their properties as a ‘back door’ around rent limits, according to tenant advocacy charity Threshold.

At the launch of its pre-Budget submission on Thursday, the charity said that it has seen an increase in the number of evictions as a result of landlords undertaking refurbishments on their properties.

Source: Sam Boal

3. Web Summit houses foreign workers in a “crash pad” due to rent crisis

Web Summit CEO Paddy Cosgrave said his event company relies on short-term housing for foreign employees arriving to Ireland with nowhere to live. The company has a “permanent crash pad” for workers relocating to its Dublin headquarters, he explained at a media briefing.

Cosgrave also commented on the government’s handling of the homelessness crisis, suggesting that the main political parties aren’t doing enough to alleviate the problem because their supporters profit from it.

Source: Niallo77/WikimediaCommons

4. This is the county with the most empty shops and offices in Ireland

Co Sligo has the highest number of empty commercial sites in the country. That’s according to a nationwide analysis by GeoDirectory and DKM Economic Consultants.

Overall, nearly a fifth of commercial property in the western county was vacant during the second quarter of this year. Other counties near the top of the list were Leitrim, Limerick, Galway and Mayo.

Source: Eamonn Farrell

5. Gen Y’s problem isn’t avocado toast, it’s skyrocketing house prices

In his deep dive into the “millennial housing crisis” this week, TheJournal.ie‘s Ronan Duffy lashed out at the suggestion that Generation Y couldn’t afford to buy due to a lack of spending discipline.

Citing new research showing that houses are now less affordable relative to wages than they were thirty years ago, Duffy also pointed to a drop in wages, and the ending of mortgage interest relief in 2012, as barriers to buying a home.

And finally, this week’s property buzzword…

We’re simplifying the murky world of real estate jargon, one buzzword explainer at a time. This week it’s conveyancing, a catch-all covering all of the legal red-tape involved in transferring ownership of a home, including payment of stamp duty and filing records.