Australia’s purpose-built student accommodation sector is gaining pace, with 40,000 new beds now in the development pipeline as federal rules linking international student visa allocations to additional housing unlock fresh supply.
The latest Urbis Student Accommodation Benchmarks, produced with the Student Accommodation Council, show there are now more than 90,000 privately owned and managed PBSA beds nationwide.
When combined with on-campus and college accommodation, the total reaches 134,000 student-only beds across Australia.
This year, the Australian Government required public universities to demonstrate compliance with three key policies before increasing international enrolments, including a commitment to expand student accommodation.
That shift has seen the national pipeline lift from 36,000 beds at the start of the year to 40,000 in Semester 2.
Of the current pipeline, 12,522 beds are in the development application phase, 16,366 have approval, and 11,202 are under construction.
New South Wales leads with 9,876 beds, followed by Victoria with 9,170, although most Victorian projects remain in the application or approval stages.
Queensland has 8,839 beds moving forward, South Australia has 4,216 following a strong quarter in Inner Adelaide, and Perth now has 6,500 beds in the pipeline.
However, Victoria’s settings remain a significant hurdle.
The state’s foreign investor land tax surcharge, combined with annual council rates and land taxes, means each student bed in Melbourne attracts $2,795 in yearly charges; a burden 126 per cent higher than in other jurisdictions.
Since PBSA relies heavily on global investment, industry groups say these taxes are stalling delivery.
The latest Urbis data shows annual taxes per bed of $1,480 in Sydney, $1,145 in Brisbane and $1,081 in Adelaide.
A Mandala Partners report for the Property Council found that institutional investment into Victorian commercial and large-scale residential property has dropped 53 per cent since the surcharge doubled in 2023, with Victoria now attracting 40 per cent less global investment per capita than NSW.
Property Council Executive Director Torie Brown said the national pipeline is promising but warned that Victoria’s tax settings risk undermining the wider housing objective.
“The federal government has made clear it wants to see continued growth in student accommodation, and these latest figures show the approach is working,” Ms 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.
“However, Victoria is taxing students out of beds. It is hard to justify the ‘Education State’ moniker when punishing providers who support our higher education system.
“By whacking providers with these exorbitant taxes, Victoria is actively standing in the way of the Australian Government’s ambition to boost student housing numbers.
“We need to open the door to investors to build more housing in our cities. If we don’t, we will miss out on the opportunity to create thousands of bustling student hubs across our country.
“The cities that make it easier to invest will reap the benefits of professionally managed student accommodation that brings life and vitality to their CBDs. 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.”
Urbis Director Clinton Ostwald said activity continues to lift across the country.
“The student accommodation pipeline continues to expand, now reaching up to 40,000 beds across the country,” he said.
“In Q3 alone, we saw 3,000 approvals, around 2,600 of those in Inner Adelaide, while Perth experienced a surge in new applications and Melbourne holds a significant number of projects in the approval stage.
“We’re currently projecting approximately 7,500 completions in 2027, indicating strong momentum in the years ahead.”
