Are International students to blame for Australia's housing crisis? | ABC News

new research by the Australian property Council has bustered a myth that International students are to blame for the country's housing crisis the reports found the rental crunch is actually being driven by a rise in Solo person households and second bedrooms being converted into home officers for more on this we are joined Now by Tori Brown who oversees student accommodation for the property Council of Australia Tori thank you so much for your time this afternoon excellent thanks for having me Ruby so at the end of Co lockdowns we had 10 of thousands of international students coming back into Australia uh when face-to-face learning recommenced and there were concerns raised that this was going to create additional pressure on housing in the midst of one of our worst housing crises uh but you have done research that pushes back against this narrative we have so we um have seen a lot of myths in the marketplace really putting the blame for the lack of rental affordability and Rental availability at the feet of international students but when we actually look at when rent started to go up and availability of property started to drop we can see that that started happening in 20120 when there were no International students in Australia due to covid so as International students have returned people have started to say Well it it's their return which is driving rent and availability but we know it's far more complex than that that there are a number of supply and demand issues across the market that are having an impact and leading to record low vacancy rates do you think that xenophobia plays a role in this myth I think International students are visibly identifiable when you're lining up for a rental inspection so I do think that that is a part of it I also think that um they all returned at once so people were very aware of international students re-entering the market but what we can see is that the problem in the market was already there and growing it just so happened that all of this perfect storm of housing pressures sort of came together at the same time so we're seeing fewer Australians living together we're seeing more people using their home office um their spare bedroom as a home office instead of having a flatmate we're seeing the rise of solo households we can see that there are more people living in more houses but they're in smaller amounts so rather than having a flat or a couple living together we're seeing an increase in the amount of people who might be living alone post divorce particularly in their 30s and their early 60s we're seeing more people take up more homes M so it's really a multifaceted issue uh and where do International students tend to live and how do they tend to set up their households so what we found with this report is that International students are not competing with moms and dads families in the suburbs who want a whole house lots of bedrooms for the kids a backyard for the dog International students live in very concentrated areas within our CBDs and close to universities they're far more likely to be in apartments and in student accommodation they only make up under 1% in the vast majority of local government areas Australia wide because they don't want to be out in the suburbs competing with moms and dads so Tori International students aren't the cause of this housing crisis but they certainly do feel the effects of it I mean what is it like to be an international student looking for a place to live uh in in Sydney or Melbourne right now where there is such a crunch it's incredibly stressful and we know that International students are a particularly vulnerable cohort they only make up 4% of the rental market but we know that when they arrive here they've got no rental history they often don't have an employment history in Australia so they're not the ideal tenant when it comes to private landlords looking at who they're going to rent their homes out to so they're already at a disadvantage what we would like to see is more purpose built student accommodation being built because then they can apply for a room it's guaranteed before they arrive in the country and they know that they've got somewhere safe to land when they get here I mean it does also seem like a space that is ripe for exploitation and we often hear these awful stories about International students crammed into houses um that that are over full uh what are some of the challenges they face there international students often don't know their rights in the private rental market so they're at the uh risk of landlords who might be slightly dodgy they're at risk of being put into overfilled households what we would like to see is more professionally managed student accommodation because then they know that their rights are protected um they only make up 4% of the market but they're our biggest um economic driver when it comes to International Education as a service export it's worth $25.5 billion to the Australian economy and we really want International students in Australia to have the best experience and that includes having a really great living experience and we need to be really careful when we talk about International students in the rental market what we say locally has waves internationally and you don't want to look like a country that is unwelcoming to International students

Channel: ABC News (Australia)

Views: 31,673

Keywords: Australia, abc, abc news, news, internation, student, sydney, sydney university, uow, uon, cbd, housing, rental, sub let, tourism, tourist, how much, rental prices, asx, renting, where to find, flat mates, flatmates.com, where to, melbourne, perth, adeladie, city, streets, suburb, student debt, covid, 19, pandmeic

Id: uP2-VHQBxIY

Length: 5min 25sec (325 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 26 2024