Research Reveals Big Changes In Student Accommodation Sector

Knight Frank have recently released this year’s

September report for student accommodation trends, which indicates that the market has moved on at a dramatic pace since their report in June.

The report draws from the released 2015 enrolment data for full and part time, domestic and overseas students at Australian universities.

Knight Frank seems convinced that there is a good chance the numbers revealed by the report will act as additional fuel to the fast revving investor and developer engine, currently seen in the student accommodation sector.

The report found that full time students topped one million in 2015, with overseas students studying full time in Australia, growing in population from 116,304 in 2001 to 308,704 in 2015. It is the third consecutive year the number of full time overseas students enrolled at Australian universities has shown positive growth (5.5%).

There are have been 4,519 purpose built bedspaces become operational during the 2016 academic year, bringing the current total to 92,070 purpose built student accommodation (PBSA) beds operational in Australia, with the potential for a further 28,517 beds to be developed during 2017, 2018 & 2019.

The report says "over half of these bedspaces (57%) have opened in Melbourne and Geelong (2,582), including schemes at Melbourne, Monash, Victoria, RMIT and Deakin universities. The University of Tasmania also completed 120 purpose built studio apartments in Launceston in February 2016. Commercial providers are also adding to stock levels."With Australia's student visa framework (SSVF) simplified into a paperless system, which came into effect on July 1st 2016, international students will now apply for a single Student visa (subclass 500), regardless of their chosen course of study.