Student Housing Australia a “Misery Machine”? Opinions on The Student Housing Crisis

Leading Aussie economist and commentator Chris Richardson has labelled student housing in Australia as a “misery machine” at a recent event in relation to international students in Australia. The comment served as a highlight of the ever-deteriorating state of housing in Australia. 

Speaking at ABC’s QnA session, Richardson responded to a question by reiterating that there is a definite correlation between migration levels in the country and the worsening housing crisis, “Across 40 years, we have turned housing into a misery machine in Australia, and this is a stunning national fail.”

To present the readers with some context, it was only in 2022 that Australia let in a little above 500,000 international students. However, in the January-August period of 2023, all records were broken as the number of new international students in Australia reached a staggering number of 725,000. Coupling these high numbers with years' worth of soaring interest rates, unprecedented inflation and rising housing prices, it is understandable why there is so much conversation surrounding the student accommodation equation. 

According to Mr Richardson, the easiest solution to the problem is cutting back on the record number of international students in Australia. Richardson acknowledges that despite Australia being a major hub of education globally, some changes can be made to the existing system. This needs to be done since the impact of the problem is quite concentrated, i.e. the increase in the number of international students in Australian universities. 

On the other hand, existing research literature suggests that the international student population is a major boon to the country. Universities Australia, the housing sector’s lobby group, argued that it is this population that contributed about AU$40 billion to the Australian economy in 2019.

“The federal government needs to fund universities instead of insisting that they make money from foreign students to pay for the domestic students”, iterated Richardson.

Australia’s asst. Treasurer Stephen Jones also spoke up in agreement with Richardson, “I agree with that. It is a job of work which needs to be done.”. However, when asked if there should be a curb on migration, Jones denied, stating that the migrations are crucial towards building more student housing Australia. “We need more houses built. Where are we going to get the labour from? We generally import that from overseas.”

Universities Australia’s chief executive, Catriona Jackson, insisted that the existing housing problem has been exacerbated by years of poor planning, shortages in the workforce and the supply issues forced upon the industry due to the pandemic.

An unprecedented level of student migrations, as well as soaring prices and rent, has swirled up the perfect storm. Richardson believes “something has to give” between housing and migration.

Chief economist Leith Van Onselen declared that based on the latest visa data, “1 in 30 people in Australia were either a student or a graduate visa holder.” a source of concern for many scholars in the field. Universities Australia, on the other hand, have insisted that the government must do better at enticing students to stay in the country. “Only 28% of these students use their post-study work rights in Australia, and just 16%become permanent residents,” said Jackson as an attempt to combat the student housing crisis.

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