Economic analysis undertaken by the Group of Eight (Go8) reveals that there is no direct link between international student numbers and Australia’s current housing crisis. The Go8, which represents Australia’s leading research-intensive universities, has joined a growing chorus of concern about what the government may have planned for the international education sector in the upcoming May budget.
The Go8 policy paper, International students and housing and other cost of living pressures, reveals that housing affordability and more general cost-of-living crisis is fundamentally a supply side problem, rather than attributable to international student numbers.
Go8 Chief Executive Vicki Thomson said, “the number of international student arrivals has no direct bearing on underlying supply side factors which include decades of underinvestment; Government regulation, planning approvals, elevated construction costs and workforce shortages; supply chain disruptions; and weak productivity growth”.
Although the Go8 paper supports the call for targeted interventions to tackle dodgy providers and the recent English language visa changes, it has cautioned the government against laying the blame on international students for the housing crisis, given their impact on the Australian economy ($47.8 billion in 2023).
“Any plans to impose a cap on international students as one mechanism to ease housing pressure – especially during a domestic skills crisis – is shortsighted and risks putting a brake on Australia’s economic growth and prosperity”, said Ms Thomson.
