Gold Coast housing crisis for students becoming ‘increasingly critical’

One of the Gold Coast’s key sectors is facing a serious housing crisis, forcing bosses to make a desperate plea to house thousands of people in coming weeks.

GOLD Coast universities are facing a housing crisis, with tens of thousands of international students pouring into the city and nowhere to house them.

The education sector’s case of “long Covid” has come to an end, with an influx of tertiary students returning after years of closed borders and travel difficulties.

But the city, which is already experiencing record-low vacancy rates, is struggling to find places for them to stay.

The situation has reached breaking point, with Study Gold Coast sending out letters to 55,000 Gold Coast families under Mayor Tom Tate’s letterhead asking them to consider taking on homestay students.

The peak education body has even pleaded with hotel operators to allow students to stay in empty rooms during down periods.

Professor Carolyn Evans Vice-chancellor, Griffith University

Griffith University Vice Chancellor Carolyn Evans has pleaded with developers and the council to support building more student housing for the city, warning it will impede growth of the sector, which is worth more than $3.5bn to the Gold Coast alone and our third-largest employer behind tourism and education.

“Australia and particularly the Gold Coast remains a popular location for students from other countries,” she said.

“Accommodation is a problem on the Gold Coast, we have some specialised accommodation for 450 students on campus but it is full and there is a waiting list,” she said.

‘We have plans for more but you cannot snap your fingers and magic up accommodation.

“A big difference between the Gold Coast and Brisbane is that they have purpose-built student accommodation so our students there can live on campus or have the choice of a number of other places.

“I think the Gold Coast is now sufficiently mature enough that it would be good to see some of that here but in the interim homestays are a fantastic option because it lets students get a taste of Australian life and fills a room which otherwise would be empty.”

The Gold Coast is facing a housing accommodation crisis for students. Picture Glenn Hampson.

Griffith University currently has 45,000 full-time equivalent students, with 16 per cent of those from overseas, slightly down from 19 per cent pre-Covid.

More than 24,000 international students are currently living on the Gold Coast, still down on the 32,000 who were here in 2019.

However the Coast property market has dramatically changed since 2020, with more than 15,000 people moving to the city annually as part of a pandemic-inspired move away from Sydney and Melbourne.

This has left the city’s vacancy levels for both rentals and homes on the market at critically low levels.

Southern Cross University has nearly 2000 international students this year, with the number of incoming new students at around 800.

An SCU spokesman said accommodation was “increasing critical” and “one of the first things prospective international and domestic students asked about.

Jennine Tax. Picture: Celeste Humphrey

Bond University, which begins its term earlier in the year than Griffith, has also returned to pre-2020 student numbers.

“Our Orientation Week in early January was one of our most well-attended on record,” a university spokeswoman said.

“For the past six weeks it has been wonderful to feel the campus abuzz like pre-pandemic times, especially with so many international students back on the Gold Coast.

“We have had a significant return of students from North America and Europe.”

Study Gold Coast acting CEO Jennine Tax said the city’s international student numbers would return to pre-Covid levels by Christmas, requiring urgent action.

“Cities all around Australia are suffering an accommodation shortage and here on the Gold Coast we have some student accommodation linked to our universities but there are no large-scale independent student facilities.

“We are now really looking to entice developers to our city but we are talking to hotel providers such as Accor to see if there are any down periods where students can take up rooms.

“Otherwise, unlocking latent stock on the Gold Coast such as spare bedrooms is our immediate focus in the short-term.”

Gold Coasters need to ‘open doors and hearts’ to international students

For over a decade, Hannele and Christian Ulrichsen have hosted hundreds of international students in their Upper Coomera home. Now, they’re urging any Gold Coast homeowner with a spare bedroom to “open their doors and hearts”.

It comes as Gold Coast universities continue to face a worsening accommodation crisis with tens of thousand of international students struggling to find a place to stay.

However Ms Ulrichsen, 70, said now more than ever it was important for Gold Coasters to support young students.

Hannele and Christian Ulrichsen are urging more people to help solve the shortage of housing for students on the Gold Coast. Picture: Glenn Hampson

“I was a homestay student myself when I was 17,” Ms Ulrichsen told the Gold Coast Bulletin.

“So I know what it feels like being in a different country and not knowing the language very well.”

Over 16 years, the Ulrichsen’s have hosted over 250 students from a variety of cultural backgrounds. And as the elderly couple continue into their pension years, they said hosting students was a “very safe and very reliable” way to make a good income.

“When we first started we would make around $240 to $250 in rent for under-18s and $260 plus for over-18s,” she said.

“Now, it’s gone up to $300 plus for university aged students.”

Under the Study Gold Coast homestay program, homeowners may earn anywhere between $250 and $315 a week.

But Mr Ulrichsen has cautioned prospective hosts against entering the program purely for financial gain.

“These students, a lot of them are coming to Australia for the first time, the culture is really different for them and they’re also still young,” he said. “So you need to treat them like your family, a lot of them are in need of parental figures too.”

“And if you do it right, you make lifelong friends.”

The couple have stayed in touch with a number of students after having left their homes and have travelled overseas to visit their former wards.

“It’d definitely a two way relationship,” Mr Ulrichsen added. “So if you’re looking to host, just be yourself, make them part of your family and don’t judge them.”

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Originally published as Gold Coast housing crisis for students becoming ‘increasingly critical’