A new university campus opening in Perth’s CBD has driven renewed interest from developers, with figures revealing more student-specific accommodation is in the pipeline to cater for an incoming spike in demand.
According to figures from the Property Council, 2514 student beds will soon become available based on developments currently under construction, with a further 721 beds included in approved developments and 3265 more beds under application – a total of 6500 in the pipeline.
ECU City will extend from Perth Busport to Yagan Square.
At the beginning of 2025, that number was 5354 – meaning 1146 beds have been added to the pipeline over the year.
Back in mid-2023, there were just 4200 student beds available across the state. Now the number of beds under application is the highest nationally, just ahead of NSW, which recorded 3123 under application.
The beds cater specifically for university students, often international students moving to WA, and are one way to ease pressure on the rental market, particularly in Perth where the vacancy rate is only 0.7 per cent.
Property Council executive director Torie Brown said the upcoming launch of Perth’s first inner-city university campus was “already reshaping the city’s student accommodation landscape”.
“There is a genuine excitement about the campus opening and what it will do for the city,” she said.
“Interest in the sector is growing rapidly, with a notable surge in development applications this year, with 6500 beds currently in the development pipeline.
“Perth has traditionally had one of the lowest student-to-beds ratios, but now we are seeing a third of all beds under construction in Australia in WA, showing that Perth has caught the interest of investors and is catching up in terms of building a mature student accommodation sector.”
Infrastructure Australia has predicted 16,400 students will be based in the Perth CBD by 2030, up from 9200 in 2025.
The federal government recently mandated that public universities could only increase international student enrolments if they demonstrated alignment with three key policies, including a commitment to increase access to student accommodation.
That link between international student visas and the growth of purpose-built student accommodation has seen the development pipeline increase to 40,000 nationally in Semester 2 this year, up from 36,000 at the beginning of the year.
There are 12,522 are in the development application phase, 16,366 have development approval, while 11,202 are under construction.
“The federal government has made clear it wants to see continued growth in student accommodation, and these latest figures show the approach is working,” Brown said.
“As universities partner with private sector owners and operators, new world-leading projects are bringing beds to the market in the areas we need them most – taking pressure off the private rental sector.
“We’re already seeing a substantial increase in the pipeline of beds in cities like Perth and Adelaide, which have investment-friendly settings and pro-international education governments.”
Developers looking to build in WA avoid being taxed per student bed, with purpose-built student accommodation attracting the same property taxes as other commercial property types, unlike states like Victoria.
In WA, there is a $400 million plan under way to transform Carillon City, with part of that transformation involving the development of a 35-storey tower to accommodate 803 students.
The construction of an $80 million, 33-storey development along Wellington Street has just begun with the aim of opening for students next year.
Student accommodation provider Juno House has just set up shop inside what was once the Rendezvous Hotel along Mount Street.
And a 21-storey build right next door to the new campus and Perth busport was approved for development, subject to conditions, in August.
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