Why Sydney University Vice Chancellor wants affordable housing special provisions

The Vice-Chancellor of Sydney’s biggest university wants unis to step in and step up to make more housing more affordable for students - but he wants Chris Minns’ help to do it. Here’s how.

The boss of Sydney’s biggest uni has called on the Minns government to overhaul planning laws and empower universities to build thousands more beds for students, in a bid to alleviate the accommodation crisis.

University of Sydney Vice Chancellor Mark Scott said universities should be recognised as affordable housing providers to free them from red tape, allowing them to fast-track developments and reducing their reliance on the private sector.

“At the moment, obstacles and planning red tape means that there’s a disincentive for universities to build their own accommodation,” he said.

“Because we’re not recognised as an affordable housing provider, it takes far more time for approval mechanisms … and it can cost far more money, which means that we are not in a position to build as much housing as we would like to.”

The designation would mean existing land owned by the university could be unlocked for housing, Professor Scott said, more could be acquired under long-term leasing arrangements and existing buildings could be “reformatted”, as the Queen Mary nurses’ accommodation at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital was in 2015.

The Queen Mary building, a former nurses' residence for the RPA Hospital, is one of the University of Sydney's existing student lodgings. Picture: Supplied

Dorm rooms in “communal living” residences would cost between $250 and $400 per week, 25 per cent below their market value.

The median rental price for a one-bedroom unit in Camperdown is $625 per week, and a studio apartment at private provider Scape’s Redfern high-rise goes for $799 per week.

The Scape student housing accommodation building in Redfern is a 15-minute walk from the University of Sydney campus. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

Sydney’s rental vacancy rates fell to a record low of 1.11 per cent last month, and an average-income student now allocates over 50 per cent of their earnings to rent.

The Vice Chancellor said Sydney’s reputation as an education destination among international, interstate and regional and rural students could be impacted by the lack of available housing.

“Unless we can come up with affordable accommodation solutions, then there will be a limit to the ability of some students to be able to afford to go to (urban) universities,” he said.

Housing researcher at the University of Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning Dr Zahra Nasreen said universities “are not taking responsibility for providing affordable housing”, and government financial incentives are sorely needed.

Sydney University Vice-Chancellor Mark Scott. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

“We have more carparking spaces in our university than housing for students in the halls of residence,” she said.

Meanwhile the limited supply and rising costs of renting through purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) providers like Scape, Iglu and UniLodge are pushing international students into “precarious” and exploitative housing situations, Dr Nasreen said, with more than 13 per cent of Sydney’s share houses found to be overcrowded.

“These students are looking for immediate housing without any knowledge … of how the power dynamic works between landlords and tenants in the Australian private rented sector,” Dr Nasreen said.

Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute managing director Michael Fotheringham warned conflating university-operated student housing with needs-basis affordable or social housing is like “comparing apples and oranges”.

While enabling unis to provide more accommodation at a lower cost “is a good thing and should be encouraged”, giving them the exact same treatment “would be significantly expanding the remit of those provisions for a quite different cohort”, Dr Fotheringham said.

“Saying (universities) should get the same (designation) as affordable housing providers is oversimplifying things in a way that I think would end up causing more harm than good,” he said.

One of the Queen Mary building’s communal areas. While more student accommodation would be “a good thing”, it doesn’t necessarily compare with affordable housing the AHURI MD says. Picture: Supplied

Property Council of Australia executive Matthew Kandelaars said the PBSA sector, which currently provides homes for 76,500 residents across the country, could also benefit from “streamlined planning approvals” and tax changes.

“At all levels of government, it is crucial to prioritise the construction of new purpose-built student accommodation, which eases the strain on the general housing market,” he said.

A spokeswoman from the Department of Planning confirmed only nationally registered community housing providers are designated as affordable housing providers in NSW. Minister Paul Scully was contacted for comment.