AUSTRALIA NEARLY 115,000 BED SHORTAGE FOR
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS IN THREE BIGGEST CITIES FACING IN THE COUNTRY
The e-economy has hit
Australia’s student accommodation market. Former university staffer Ricardo
Gutierrez this week launched Bedssi, an Airbnb-style accommodation portal aimed
at students. Meanwhile, London-based Student.com has spread its net to Australia, listing properties in
Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.
The moves come amid a flurry of
activity from specialist student accommodation
providers. Last week news emerged that GSA Group Asia Pacific intended to
re-enter the market — with plans to manage 25,000 beds within 10 years — after
selling off its 4000-bed Urbanest business last year. And sector heavyweight
Campus Living Villages is reviewing its capital requirements ahead of a
possible stock exchange listing of its 44,000-bed portfolio.
The new e-entrants are small by comparison. Student.com, originally founded as Overseas Student Living in 2011,
carries 30 sites in Australia. Bedssi, which launched on Monday, has about 15
properties and aims to facilitate 1000 bookings in its first year.
But Mr Gutierrez said there was
plenty of scope for growth. He cited a 2015 report by management firm JLL,
which identified a shortfall of 115,000 purpose-built beds for international
students in Australia’s three biggest cities, even if all current development
plans were realised.
Mr Gutierrez, a former international
student from Colombia, said purpose-built accommodation was mainly aimed at
“rich” students looking for the latest technology and facilities. “It’s great,
but they’re servicing a certain type of student,” he said. “We need a solution
that tries to service everybody.”
He said accommodation for
international students was at crisis point and that digs were prohibitively
expensive and in short supply. Newly arrived students were shocked at the cost,
despite being forewarned, and spent their early weeks in Australia searching
for accommodation when they should have been acclimatising to their new
cities.
“If nothing is done, this
problem is going to become much bigger, and there’s going to be perhaps
hundreds of thousands of beds lacking for students in Australia,” Mr Gutierrez
said.
Bedssi plans to offer
accommodation ranging from spare rooms to entire houses, catering to visiting
academics as well as students. The business funds itself by charging a “small”
commission from the students and the accommodation providers.
Mr Gutierrez said the service
would be welcomed by local homeowners as well as students. He said families
were increasingly taking in foreign students to help pay the mortgage.
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