Yesterday the Student Accommodation Council, an arm of the Property Council of Australia, released a report saying international students are not the cause of the housing crisis – making up only four per cent of Australia’s rental market Australia-wide.
“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,” said Torie Brown Executive Director of the Student Accommodation Council.
This revelation is a game-changer for the sector, and it poses a challenge for the government. The government’s migration reforms, which heavily targeted students, were largely based on the assumption that international students were a significant factor in the housing crisis. This report’s findings could, and should reshape these policies.
Minister O’Neil is on record linking a reduction in net migration to housing affordability:
“What I would say is that it’s very important that we bring this system back to a sustainable size. And that’s because there’s really big pressures at the moment in our major cities, in particular, on housing, on our infrastructure.” The Project 11/12/23
“That’s about normal and what we need to do is bring that back to a sustainable level. We’ve got pressures on housing in our cities, we’ve got serious pressures on infrastructure, and we certainly need to bring the migration numbers back to normal. So that’s what the changes will do. And if your viewers at home think about it, that is a very dramatic change to our migration numbers over what will be a two-year period.” Interview with Kieran Gilbert 11/12/23
This report underscores attempts to use the international student stream to reduce the number may not meet the objective.
If it isn’t international students, then why is affordability diminishing?
According to the press release accompanying the report:
The rise of smaller and solo-person households, intrastate migration and a trend to re-purposing second bedrooms into home offices are all impacting the supply and affordability of rental homes across the country.
While international students have returned to Australia post-Covid, the increase in rents do not align with their return. In fact, rents began rising in 2020, when there was no international student migration and most students had returned home.
Between 2019 and 2023, median weekly rent increased by 30 per cent. Over the same period, student visa arrivals decreased by 13 per cent.
This makes sense.
The report also shows the current pipeline of new purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) developments will not meet future needs – with the projected 7,770 new beds due to come online by 2026 not enough to alleviate demand in the private rental market.
Organisations represented on the Student Accommodation Division Council include:
Scape Australia
Campus Living Villages Pty Ltd
UniLodge Australia Pty Ltd
Iglu Pty Limited
Scape Australia
Cedar Pacific
Centurion
Journal Student Living
GSA International Developments (Australia) Pty Limited
GSA International Developments (Australia) Pty Limited
Student One
Wee Hur (Australia) Pty Ltd
The Koala congratulates the Property Council of Australia, Student Accommodation Council, and these private firms that are standing behind the sector and debunking untruths.
