The Property Council of Australia has hit rock bottom with their latest propaganda report claiming that the record volume of international students is not contributing to Australia’s rental crisis:
International students make up only four per cent of Australia’s rental market and are not to blame for the housing crisis, it has been revealed in a landmark report released by the Student Accommodation Council.
The rise of smaller and solo-person households, intrastate migration and a trend to re-purposing second bedrooms into home offices are all impacting the supply and affordability of rental homes across the country.
While international students have returned to Australia post-Covid, the increase in rents do not align with their return. In fact, rents began rising in 2020, when there was no international student migration and most students had returned home.
Between 2019 and 2023, median weekly rent increased by 30 per cent. Over the same period, student visa arrivals decreased by 13 per cent…
“International students have been unfairly blamed for the rental crisis, yet this report shows that long term structural issues in Australia’s housing market are the real cause for rental pressures,” said Torie Brown Executive Director of the Student Accommodation Council.
“There are more domestic students in rental homes than international– yet no one is suggesting we ban share-houses for local university students.
The Property Council’s arguments do not pass the pub test.
First, the Student Accommodation Council is the mouthpiece for purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) providers.
Therefore, it has a vested interest in ensuring substantial volumes of international students in Australia, and its research on this matter should be viewed accordingly.
Second, student visa numbers in Australia swelled to an all-time high of 671,400 in March, with graduate visas also ballooning to a record 199,900:
International student and graduate visas are nearly 180,000 above their 2019 pre-pandemic peak.
A report published this month in The Australian noted that “at least 400,000” international students have landed on the private rental market:
“Australia’s biggest universities are failing to provide 80% of their foreign students with guaranteed housing, despite taking in $9bn a year in tuition fees”.
“Universities have built enough dorm rooms to accommodate only 40,000 students nationally – a fraction of the 205,000 international students they have enrolled to study in Australia this year, while private training colleges have failed to provide any accommodation, even though they have accepted 149,000 foreign students this year”.
“The failure of the $26bn international education industry to provide accommodation has meant at least 400,000 international students have been forced into a private rental market with the tightest vacancy rates on record”.
“Universities benefit significantly from international students and they have a responsibility to help house them’’, Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said.
“Why should universities be permitted to bring in unlimited numbers of international students, particularly to Melbourne and Sydney where the housing crisis is particularly serious, when they fail to take adequate responsibility for where these students will live?’’ Federal Opposition Education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said.
Record numbers of students landing in Australia are directly contributing to the rental crisis, although it is a broader immigration story (of which students are only one part).
Third, the data categorically shows that rents fell at the beginning of the pandemic when migration (and student) numbers fell, only to surge when migration (and students) flooded back:
Indeed, the correlation between population growth and rental growth is clear:
The fact that migration numbers have boomed into a supply constrained market has unambiguously driven rental vacancies lower:
It has also driven rents to the moon:
Finally, the claim that “There are more domestic students in rental homes than international– yet no one is suggesting we ban share-houses for local university students” is asinine.
Why shouldn’t Australian citizens have priority access to housing? Otherwise, what is the point of being Australian?
International education is a classic example of universities and private colleges privatising the benefits of record immigration while passing the costs on to Australians, particularly renters.
One solution that aligns their interests with Australian tenants is to make universities and private colleges liable for housing their overseas students.
For example, the government should require institutions to provide on-campus housing for at least half of their international student enrolments.
Therefore, if universities and colleges want to increase their international student population, they must develop more on-campus housing.
Such a policy would limit foreign student numbers (and hence net overseas migration) and directly relieve strains on the private rental market, creating a win-win situation.
Obviously, ticket-clipping lobbyists like the Student Accommodation Council would never support a policy that would limit student throughput.
