Laws are needed to protect people from offers of sex for rent.
The Irish Council for International students says its a particular issue for female foreign students here, with 1 in 20 exposed to adverts for free rent in return for sex.
1 in 7 also report being offered accommodation which involves sleeping in the same bed as a stranger with one Brazilian student living in Cork outlining how she shared a bed with 2 people she didn't know for a year and a half.
Executive Director of ICOS Laura Harmon says high rents and overcrowding are also cause for concern:
"One in 10, international students had seen or experienced an accommodation scam. We also saw high levels of overcrowding with three out of four, English language students saying that they share a room with more than one other person in Ireland so this is a symptom of the wider housing crisis."
