Australian pipeline for student housing development: Savills
Australia’s popularity among international students is here to stay, with enrolments in higher education courses with student visas growing by 9 .7 percent from 2014 to 2015, according to the 2016 Australian Student Accommodation Market Report from Savills international.
The undersupply of Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) in many capital cities, high occupancy levels for stabilised operational properties, robust revenue growth and attractive yield pricing in comparison to the globally established student accommodation markets, all contribute to student accommodation being an attractive investment, says the report.
There are currently 67,695 beds of PBSA in the eight Australian capital cities. All cities have an existing supply of less than 12 percent per full-time student with the exception of Canberra (27.8 percent), but compared to the existing supply and proposed pipeline in several UK cities, all of the Australian cities supply are at low levels.
Melbourne and Brisbane have the largest development pipelines of 9,651 beds (4 percent FT students) and 8,930 beds (6 percent FT students) respectively, but Sydney has a limited pipeline in place over the next four years with a total pipeline of 3,665 beds (2 percent FT students).
Also evident is the extent of pipeline supply across the UK cities, including substantial pipelines in Durham and Liverpool where the existing supply equates to over 40 percent of full-time students.
Savills research indicates that more than $2 billion has been invested into development projects across Australia since the start of 2015. The following chart provides a summary of the existing supply of PBSA and the proposed development pipeline in each of Australia’s capital cities and a selection of UK cities, with the cities sorted by the total provision of accommodation including pipeline.
