Accommodation Issues for International Students in Australia

Individual Investigation Report
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Industry overview:.......................................................................................................................3
Analysis of the issue:...................................................................................................................4
Summary:.....................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6
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INTRODUCTION:
Accommodation is a big cause of concern for international travellers, especially the international
students in Australia who are about to spend a couple of years as students in the country. The
sky-rocketing price of the accommodation has turned out to be an impending issue for the
students who flock from different parts of the world to study there.
Industry overview:
In 2017 about 799,371 students from different parts of the world came to Australia to study and
amongst them majority of the students numbering to 350,472 pursued higher education (Studies
in Australia, 2019). So there is a huge demand in the accommodation segment to accommodate
them based on their preference and affordability. Generally students opt for institutions having
the facility for on-campus accommodation or residential colleges like Gatton and St Lucia off the
University of Queensland (uq.edu.au, 2019). But there are not enough on-campus
accommodation available and so the students need to look for off-campus housing facilities.
Again the on-campus accommodation facilities vary in terms of costs like University of Sydney
charges AU$8,300 per semester and University of Queensland charges AU$2,565 monthly to
accommodate its international students.
In such a scenario the international students not only face massive accommodation problems in
Australia but they have to pay extreme education fees, extreme rentals, conveyance cost. So it
would be better for them to look for affordable accommodation for their study tenure. Students
strive to stay in alternative accommodations like homestay that provide a low cost
accommodation to them. There are organisations like Airbnb which provide online hospitality
services related to homestays such as low cost homestays to the international students. Though
the homestays are affordable they tend to be overfilled and are not properly taken care of
(Humanrights.gov.au, 2012). The students also has the option of guest house and hostel that costs
nearly AU$80-A$135 per week, it is even lower than homestay or accommodation in university.
International students sometimes choose to stay at colleges that have accommodation facilities
and are vulnerable to the increasing rent in the cities like Melbourne and Sydney. Organization
like the Commonwealth Rent Assistance has limited its rent at AU$ 89.97 for a fortnight (ABC
News, 2018). The monthly studying and accommodation cost in Sydney is highly expensive and
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