The Student Accommodation Council has congratulated the government for finally doing its own modelling on the impact of international students in the rental market – finding they make up less than seven per cent of all rental homes.
The modelling comes six months after the Council’s own report which revealed international students are not the cause of the housing crisis.
It was revealed in Senate committee hearings last week that neither Treasury nor the Education Department had modelled up the impact of students on the housing market before they announced their policy to restrict student visas. But apparently they have and whilst not available publicly have spoken to the Australian about it.
In a story run today by Natasha Bita it would appear the Department has released the data saying:
“The 4 per cent national average figure based on the Census would be more like 7 percent based on 31 July 2024 figures,’’ the Education Department states.”
“I’m pleased the government has finally done its homework and looked at the impact of international students on the rental market. Better late than never,” Executive Director of the Student Accommodation Council Torie Brown said.
“Their data mirrors our own findings, that international students make up less than seven per cent of the entire rental market.
“International students largely live in CBDs and adjacent to major university campuses, where they favour apartments and purpose-built student accommodation. The government’s own analysis has found they are not competing for family homes out in the suburbs.
The Australian story confirms this point stating “The department analysis shows that 90 per cent of all international universitystudents live in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Canberra.”
Brown says “The housing crisis in Australia has been in the making for twenty years.”
“Historically low housing supply, slow planning systems, smaller household sizes and a shift towards people using their spare bedrooms as offices instead of bedrooms are the real reasons behind the housing crisis.
“We surveyed our members before the beginning of semester two and found there was availability of student accommodation in most capital cities, including good availability in Melbourne.
“Rather than cutting student numbers dramatically, it would make more sense to help suitable international students book student accommodation beds before they arrive in the country.
“Then government needs to take a long-term look at the structural supply issues in our country. We can’t blame international students for a problem we created.”
Interestingly, a question on notice from the Senate Committee that the DOE was to provide its evidence of housing data. It hasn’t yet been published on the Senate Committee website, but it appears they’ve provided it to The Australian.
Let’s see what Senator Henderson may say about that come 2 October at the 4th hearing.
