NEWS
campusreview.com.au
Student housing
boom expected
There is a substantial undersupply of accommodation
built for Australian universities, but stakeholders
expect that to change in the next few years.
S
tudent accommodation website student.com has predicted
a boom in the Australian purpose-built student housing
industry, which many consider woefully undersupplied.
Purpose-built student accommodation refers to housing built
specifically for students. Bede Moore, student.com’s head of
growth and partnerships in Australia, said this accommodation type
houses only 1 in 10 overseas students looking for residences.
“What we have seen historically was that there had been less
investment comparatively in Australia in this particular asset class,”
Moore said. “Fortunately, what’s been happening over the last
few years, and what’s continuing at the moment, is that a lot of
international players and also domestic players have invested to
build these buildings. A lot have already come online in Brisbane,
some [also] in Sydney and what we’ll see in the next couple of years
is a number of other buildings will come online in Melbourne.
“That means there is a better coverage ratio for students
than there has been previously, bringing Australia up to more
internationally comparable levels.”
Adelaide could also be a big target for development. Urbanest and
the University of Adelaide recently added 689 beds to that market.
Real estate firm Savills estimates $2 billion has been invested in student
accommodation development, nationally, since 2015.
But data released by student.com, which lists properties in more than
400 cities across 29 countries, showed Sydney is the second most
searched city for accommodation options on its website. Melbourne is
third. London is the most searched city. Brisbane placed No. 10. ■
SEARCH POPULARITY ON STUDENT.COM
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
London
Sydney
Melbourne
New York
Los Angeles
Manchester
Glasgow
Birmingham
Sheffield
Brisbane
Tertiary cohort tops 2 million
ABS data also reveals education
improves job prospects more
for fathers than for mothers.
O
ne in five Australians aged 15–64,
or 3 million people, are enrolled
in formal study, figures from the
Australian Bureau of Statistics show.
The same data set showed that just
under three-quarters of this number
– 2.2 million people – participated in
tertiary education in 2016. Two out five
completing tertiary education are enrolled
in a bachelor’s degree.
The ABS showed there are 4.6 million
Australians with a bachelor degree or
higher. This represents nearly a quadrupling
of the proportion of people with these
qualifications over the past 30 years –
7.2 per cent in 1986, compared with 26 per
cent today. Four out of five people with
bachelor degrees are employed.
UK
Australia
Australia
US
US
UK
UK
UK
UK
Australia
11. Edinburgh
12. Liverpool
13. Chicago
14. Coventry
15. Boston
16. Leeds
17. Nottingham
18. Toronto
19. Paris
20. Montréal
UK
UK
US
UK
US
UK
UK
Canada
France
Canada
The proportions of men and women
enrolled in bachelor degrees are similar
– 42 per cent of men and 41 per cent
of women – the data showed. The
proportions remain roughly equal at the
PhD level – 10 per cent of men and 10.2 per
cent of women.
Education doesn’t seem to pay off
as well for mothers when it comes
to job prospects, however, the ABS
demonstrated. About 80 per cent of men
with dependent children are employed,
compared with 28 per cent of women
with dependent children. Furthermore,
37 per cent of the mothers in jobs are
employed part-time, compared with just
8.6 per cent of men. Just under one-third
of women with dependent children are
unemployed, compared with 6.8 pe