Student housing operator Scape corralled 20 banks to finance its property developments and cut its borrowing costs by replacing private credit providers with traditional lenders like Macquarie, Westpac and ING.

The lenders were not deterred by the Albanese government’s plan to cap universities and colleges to enrolling a maximum of 40 per cent of their students from overseas from January 1, 2025. Australia’s biggest universities will have to shed thousands of places to comply with the new rules.