CO-LIVING developments – essentially, student housing blocks for grown-ups – were banned in the Republic in 2020 after only a handful had been built.

Cramming young professionals into glorified halls of residence proved too controversial for Ireland’s housing debate, especially in Dublin, where all the blocks are located and the debate can be intensely ideological.

In financial terms, those developments have proved successful.

Investors queued up to build them, tenants have queued up to rent them, and the profits have been so high that further queues have formed of investors wanting to buy over or remortgage them.

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If the ban were ever lifted, more blocks would sprout across Dublin like mushrooms.

Co-living has been less successful as a social experiment.

It was promoted to planners and tenants as a way for young people to move into ready-made communities, where they could socialise with hundreds of ‘flatmates’ in on-site gyms, cinemas, workspaces and other communal areas.

In reality, Dublin’s blocks tend to house a transient collection of well-paid tech workers and other employees of multinationals.

Tenants and neighbouring residents complain about a lack of community.

There have also been complaints that co-living does nothing for Dublin’s housing shortage.

It........

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