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The Student Accommodation Council has commended the government’s “sustainable” limit of 270,000 international student arrivals for 2025.
Minister of Education, Jason Clare, has announced new legislation which, once passed, will set a National Planning Level (NPL) for new international student arrivals of 270,000 for 2025, aiming to bring the number of international student commencements back to “pre-pandemic levels”.
This development was welcomed by the Property Council of Australia’s Student Accommodation Council which stated that this “sustainable number will give investors the confidence they need to continue growing supply”.
Commenting on the announcement, executive director of the Student Accommodation Council, Torie Brown, expressed it was “heartening to see the minister reveal sustainable student visa figures”, which she said would enable “the industry to partner with universities in confidence to deliver more accommodation”.
“Minister Clare has recognised that to grow the amount of student accommodation in Australia we need to see the higher education sector partner with the private sector to increase supply,” she said.
While the industry body also voiced approval around Clare’s intention to grow the supply of purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA), the executive director cautioned that the government’s ambition “will only work if its state colleagues work with the sector to turbocharge supply”.
“The quickest way to do this by 2026 is to ensure students are taking up existing beds and incentivise further accommodation development,” stated Brown.
“Investors have capital ready to deploy into developing new assets, but they have been waiting to see the size of the government’s student caps.”
International students comprise 74 per cent of PBSA sector residents, which Brown emphasised makes the market reliant on their stable inflow to “underpin the viability of future projects”.
“Ridiculously high state taxes on international investors who build PBSA continue to be a handbrake on new development. The Victorian and Queensland governments should come to the party by getting rid of these taxes on student accommodation development immediately.”
This announcement follows the recent release of a report from the Student Accommodation Council which showcased that the current pipeline of new PBSA developments is not sufficient for future needs, with the 7,770 new beds expected by 2026 not enough to meet demand in the private rental market.
In speaking on the difficulties around PBSA development, the industry body highlighted the high foreign-investor land tax surcharges, “cumbersome” planning processes and “clunky” state-based legislation as significant obstacles faced by the sector.
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