International students return in droves, adding to rental shortages nationwide

International student arrivals have reached their highest level since February 2019 according to recent data.

142,000 student visa holders arrived in February 2023 alone, an increase of 190% on February 2022, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Capital city rental pressure to increase

This sharp increase in student arrivals coincides with an increase in offshore searches for rental properties, which PropTrack data shows in the past three months was up 34% on the same period in 2019, adding more pressure to an already tight rental market.

Most searches for rental properties favour capital cities with big universities, with Melbourne and Sydney being the most popular.

And with capital city rents increasing at 13% year-on-year, with house and unit rents both increasing by more than 10%, it begs a few questions – what are international students going to do? Where are they going to live? And how can we help them while also easing the pressure on the broader rental market?

Solutions for easing pressure on the rental market

“Supply is the answer,” Claudia Conley from flatmates.com.au said.

“We need more rental listings in the market to help ease the pressure faced by international students, as well as better housing affordability.”

Katie Bursnall from rentstar.com.au said affordability has become a major issue since some previous student housing was turned into residential accommodation during Covid.

“Because the rents have remained so high, a lot of the owners of these properties have chosen to remain in the residential market,” she said.

“So now that students are returning, there is a lot less availability, which is putting more pressure on the residential market.”

Purpose-built student accommodation needed

One way to increase the supply for students and ease the pressure on the rental market according to Executive Director of the Student Accommodation Council, Torie Brown, is to build purpose-built student housing.

“The more purpose-built student accommodation we have in Australian CBDs, the fewer students we have competing in the private rental market,” she said.

“This means there will be more beds and more assurances about where they’re going to live and there will be more residential properties available to people looking for a rental home.”

Homeowners could open their doors

Another alternative, according to Ms Conley, is for those with spare bedrooms in their homes to rent them out.

“Recent data shows there are 12 million spare bedrooms in Australia,” she said.

“We’d love to see some of those listed to help ease the pressure on international students.”

Students have to compete in the residential property market to secure a roof over their heads. Picture: Getty

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So, with international students returning to Australia in droves, the current rental crunch is set to get even tighter unless something is done to target student housing needs.