Students in host hunt
THE housing crisis is threatening to put the brakes on a booming Gold Coast business bringing international students to the city.
Providers of homestay accommodation say they desperately need more host families to help accommodate students who have rushed back after the reopening of international borders.
Study Match Australia owner Denise Payne said her business had experienced a surge in the number of students wanting to come to the Gold Coast to learn English, but was struggling to find enough host families.
“We didn’t have any students for two years because of Covid,” Ms Payne said. “Then the floodgates opened and we have been inundated, especially with Japanese.
“There have been lots and lots and lots of Japanese students. And we’re finding it really hard.”
Students usually spent a month with host families before moving to student accommodation, Ms Payne said.
However, with rental vacancy rates at a historic low of 0.4 per cent, they had suffered a trickle-down effect from the housing crisis, with students
staying much longer with host families because alternative accommodation was difficult to find. This in turn meant less availability among families to host new arrivals.
“After four weeks we’re finding many of them can’t find a share house,” Ms Payne said.
“We’re losing families to students who, instead of com
ing for four weeks, are staying with the family for the whole three months.
“We’re not turning students away but we’re finding that we’re having to beg people to take them … and it’s going to get worse.”
Families can make $300 a week tax free hosting an international student.
“If you’re cooking lunch, cooking meals for your family, it’s not much more to add for one more person,” she said.
“We have pensioners, people who have retired, they make wonderful homestay families because they have all the time in the world to look after these kids. And they don’t have to declare it on
their tax, and it doesn’t affect their pension.”
Before the Covid-19 pandemic struck consultants Deloitte Access Economics estimated the international education sector was worth more than $5bn to Queensland, with 13 per cent of students heading for the Gold Coast.