Brisbane student accommodation in midst of approval boom

The rush to accommodate Brisbane's growing student population has boomed on the back of discounted council infrastructure charges.

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said the council had received 16 applications for student accommodation within a four-kilometre radius of the city centre since he announced the new incentives in February.

Student One is converting the old Boeing office building on the corner of Adelaide and Wharf streets into dedicated student accommodation.

Those proposals would house a total of 5500 students, which Cr Quirk said was about one-third of the estimated demand.

The 16 development applications covered both new buildings and the conversion of old office space into accommodation.

The proposed 41-storey student accommodation building at 38 Wharf Street.

Before developers got too excited, Cr Quirk said the council would not allow just any commercial building to be converted to residential space.

"It has to be a particular type of building," he said.

"Obviously, window views and those types of things become important, so it's the shape and size of that building that's paramount as to whether it can become a conversion."

Cr Quirk said the council incentive would "suck up some of the surplus office space" in Brisbane's CBD.

"We believe there is around 300,000 square metres of surplus space in our CBD and (the Boeing building) is one example of where that (conversion) will occur," he said.

One of the buildings deemed suitable was the old Boeing office building on the corner of Adelaide and Wharf streets.

Work has already started on the Boeing building's conversion to student accommodation and was expected to be completed by next June.

The company behind that conversion was Student One, which also planned to build a new 41-story tower on the site of a food court across the road.

Construction on that $105 million tower, which was revealed by Fairfax Media almost two weeks ago, was still subject to council approval.

Student One hoped to have its new tower at 38 Wharf Street completed by December 2017, in time for the 2018 student year.

Student One chief executive Tim Weston said the company's goal was to have up to 3000 beds in Brisbane. Its two proposals so far would provide about half that number.

As for how much they would cost renters, Mr Weston said it would "probably be cheaper than the Meriton" serviced apartments that bookended the CBD.

"But Meriton, to me, is not the right comparison," he said.

"A lot of people do live in these serviced apartments, but they're not communities.

"What we're trying to develop is a community that is purpose-built for student accommodation."

When asked whether a struggling student flipping burgers at a fast food outlet would be able to afford to live at a Student One facility, Mr Weston said there should be options.

"I can't guarantee that every single hungry student (would be able to afford it), but what we're trying to do is have accommodation that hits certain price points," he said.

"It may mean people sharing a twin-bed if they don't have the same money as others."

Cr Quirk said there was a significant international student population of about 75,000 in Brisbane and education was the city's largest export industry, valued at about $3.77 billion a year.

Those international students were expected to take up between 70 and 80 per cent of Student One's accommodation.

Cr Quirk said he was not concerned about the glut of development resulting in a market oversupply.

"Brisbane is still very much as a price point where we're very attractive in terms of supply," he said.

"You look at the pricing here, compared to Sydney and Melbourne, and we're a very attractive space at the moment.

"Supply and demand are the major factors here and if the number of units that are on-line reach a point of oversupply, it will scale back very, very quickly.

"It doesn't matter whether projects are approved or not. If the demand is not there, they simply won't be built."

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