Property investors in Melbourne await thousands of foreign students, but might not be until 2022
The Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has indicated that international students are unlikely to be permitted to return to their studies in 2021 despite the government desire for the international education industry to resume as quickly as possible.
Property investors awaits 1000s of foreign students to return to Melbourne, but it looks likely the typical February influx won’t happen.
Andrews said on Monday that it would be "incredibly challenging" at best, and it may be impossible for a resumption anytime soon.
Last year education think tank, the Mitchell Institute found international students occupied more than 30 per cent of the accommodation in some inner-city and close-to-campus suburbs in capital cities.
The property consulting firm Urbis estimated there are 113,000 purpose-built student accommodation beds in Australia, and 45,500 in the pipeline.
The latest figures from the Federal Department of Education, Skills and Employment show around 30 per cent of Australia's 540,000 student visa holders were out of the country on January 10.
Most departures had occurred in New South Wales (60,000), Victoria (56,000) followed by Queensland (23,000).
Close to 100,000 Chinese students have departed, along with 12,000 from India, according to the department's figures.
Last week he noted "bespoke" quarantine facilities could be an option for his government. But he has since noted limits to the number of people who can be safely quarantined, especially as many Australians await their return home from overseas.
The Federal Government has asked the state to outline plans for the return of international students.
A federal education department spokesman told the ABC that "no final plans have been shared with the Commonwealth".
"Larger numbers of international student arrivals will only be considered when Australians wishing to come back to Australia have returned in substantial numbers," the spokesman told the ABC website.
In July 2019, an estimated 144,000 students arrived in time for the second semester of study, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Last July, just 40 students arrived.