Open homes to fix a crisis
Our city has shown incredible initiative to help ease the education sector’s accommodation crunch, so why not apply that creative problem-solving across the Coast’s property crisis?
When it comes to the Gold Coast’s property crisis, there’s a lesson to be learned from our education sector. With international borders back to normal, the stream of international students pouring into our city is almost back to pre-covid levels … but the accommodation options are at an all-time low.
Just as so many of our residents are experiencing, Gold Coast universities have also been hit by the housing shortage, with Study Gold Coast sending an SOS to 55,000 Gold Coast families asking them to consider taking on homestay students.
Written under Mayor Tom Tate’s letterhead, the mailed missive has been enthusiastically received by our city.
Just one month after the Host for the Coast campaign was announced, Study Gold Coast reports that around 400 residents have registered an expression of interest to open their doors to one of the students from more than 130 different countries coming to the city to study.
It makes sense, and cents, given we’re all struggling to make ends meet under this cost-of-living crisis.
After all, by providing just one bedroom, residents can earn up to $350 per week, tax-free. Whether or not they provide meals is up to the individual, while there is also the option for the visiting student to provide childcare.
It’s a win-win. Meanwhile, Bond University is creating its own long-term solution, reworking a decade-old plan for a mixed-use development at Varsity Lakes into a major new student accommodation centre.
As reported by Business News Australia, Bond University has lodged a development application for a vacant 7063sq m site it owns at 14 Lake Street, directly adjacent to the university campus, for the construction of a twin-tower project that will provide 646 student beds across 499 units.
The project will offer a mix of studios as well as two and threebedroom units, plus 1345sq m of tuition, learning and study spaces.
Bond University subsidiary Lashkar Pty Ltd will develop the towers, subject to council approval, which will stand at 15 and 17 storeys, plus supporting dining, exercise, study and communal facilities.
Given that international students make up almost half of the total Bond cohort, this, again, makes absolute sense.
The university owns the land, its needs have changed, so why not pivot and provide a solution?
I only wish that we could see such timely responses in other areas of the housing crisis.
While it’s great that the Queensland Government has hosted both a Housing Summit and this week’s Housing Roundtable, with new measures announced such as a controversial cap to limit rental hikes to once a year, I’m just not seeing the same sense of urgency applied to increasing accommodation supply for our struggling families as our visiting students.
Of course I understand that, economically, there is a real benefit to ensure international students can be housed in our city - they provide an enormous boost to our bottom line and continue to help grow our fantastic education sector.
But this should not be an either/or prospect. We do not have to choose between international students and
local residents. We can help both.
I would love to see the creative conviction applied to solving the education crisis to our community at large.
While ultimately the power to solve the housing crisis lies at the state level, our city has shown incredible initiative to find creative solutions in order to accommodate our education sector. So why not apply that across the Coast?
Is there a campaign we can get behind that might provide some support to residents who would be open to offering a bedroom to someone who is struggling?
Perhaps further encouragement towards creating granny flats in our backyards?
And, of course, further restrictions on short-term rentals like Airbnbs.
God knows I don’t have the answers, but maybe we could have a city-level meeting to brainstorm some options?
We have the heart, the brainpower and the skill in this town … we just need the will.
But perhaps that’s precisely what out education sector can teach us.
Is there a campaign we can get behind that might provide some support to residents who would be open to offering a bedroom to someone who is struggling?