Claims made by the wider public that international students have contributed to the nation’s worsening housing crisis have been refuted by the Student Accommodation Council, who claim that those from overseas who travel to Australia to study make up just four percent of the entire rental market.

A recent report published by the Council believes that there are larger factors at play, including an increase in smaller households, interstate migration and a repurposing of bedrooms that have now become home offices in the wake of the pandemic.

The Council also points to statistics that indicate that rents began to rise in 2020, at a time when there was no international student migration, as well as the fact that while median weekly rents increased by nearly a third from 2019-23, student visa arrivals dropped by 13 percent.

“International students have been unfairly blamed for the rental crisis, yet this report shows that long term structural issues in Australia’s housing market are the real cause for rental pressures,” says Torie Brown Executive Director of the Student Accommodation Council.

“There are more domestic students in rental homes than international– yet no one is suggesting we ban share-houses for local university students.

“We need to look at the broad spectrum of issues driving up rent and reducing the supply of homes, rather than blaming a single cohort.

“If we continue to build new student accommodation assets at the current rate, we will see an extra one percent of international students forced into the private rental market.

Brown says that the 7,770 purpose-built student accommodation beds anticipated to be delivered between now and 2026 is nowhere near enough.

“We need the pipeline of PBSA projects to add 66,000 new beds to the market by 2026 to maintain the proportion of international students living in our buildings rather than the private market.”

The Council’s Chair and Scape CEO, Anouk Darling, says issues in the planning phase are to blame for a pipeline in dire need of bolstering.

“The difficulties faced by the sector include slow planning systems, high property taxes and clunky state-based legislation.

“International students contribute $25.5 billion to the Australian economy, and they deserve the best housing experience when they arrive in our country.

“We need governments to work with us to grow the supply of professionally managed, custom built and safe student accommodation which alleviates pressure on the private rental market.”

Image: Gillies Hall at Macquarie University.

Jarrod Reedie

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