Accommodation Sector Analysis: Issues and Challenges in Australia

This individual investigation report examines the contemporary issues within the Australian accommodation sector, focusing on challenges faced by international students. The report provides an industry overview, analyzes the key issues, and discusses the impact of factors like housing prices and the rise of platforms like Airbnb. It highlights the difficulties international students face in securing affordable and suitable accommodation, the impact of the housing bubble, and the exploitation faced by some students. The report references scholarly literature to support its findings and emphasizes the need for administrative intervention to address these challenges and protect international students' interests. The report also discusses the revenue Australia earns from international students and the potential loss if students choose other destinations. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for solutions to the accommodation issues currently faced by international students.

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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a number of students studying there are exploited by unlawful accommodation. Students are also
exploited by the university associated housing contract. Students cannot afford the costs and run
into financial troubles tending them to take up odd jobs for sustenance (Grimmer, et al., 2019).
Some students have lower earnings to take an accommodation making them to sleep at the
university library raising the instance of homelessness of the international students in Australia.
Analysis of the issue:
Source: (the Guardian, 2019)
The housing prices across Melbourne and Sydney dropped significantly by 7.2% and 11.1%
respectively in 2018 against its 2017 figures (the Guardian, 2019). In 2018, the prices dropped by
4.8% nationally which led Deutsche Bank to categorise the phenomenon as a potential housing
crash across Australia summing it up as one of the topmost 30 risks in the global economic
scenario. So the phenomenon has led to a housing crisis making availability of the
accommodation segment quite difficult in the Australian scenario (Nyland & Tran, 2019).
Therefore its consequences are being felt dearly by the international students who seldom gets
on-campus accommodation and either bear the burns of expensive accommodation or needs to
compromise owing to cheap sharing.
It is the accommodation concern that bothers the students heavily making them to forgo a half
day meal to save costs on accommodation. It is an alarming situation and if the scenario
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continues like this, then Australia would experience a gradual decrease in its number of
international students. The country earns an overwhelming revenue of AU$34 billion from the
arrival of its international students from various countries like China, India, Malaysia, Vietnam,
Hong Kong and Singapore amongst others contributing to its GDP (Australia.gov.au, 2019). So
if the international students flock to other destinations for studying, then the country would lose a
substantial revenue owing to it. It is a high time that the administration needs to delve into the
matter and offer resolution to the accommodation issue prevailing in the current scenario.
The circumstances in which the international students studying in Australia are quite grim as
there are no such legislation to safeguard their interest in the country (Cuervo & Wyn, 2016). So
there are widespread exploitation of the international students so far their accommodation issue
is concerned as only a handful of them get themselves accommodated in the residential campuses
while majority of them suffer in overcrowded facilities. It is despite the fact that the international
students market in Australia is the 3rd largest exporting industry contributing to $17 billion to the
economy in recent times (Jakubowicz & Monani, 2015). The housing bubble experienced in the
Australian market has brought in a never ending suffering for the students and it seems there has
been no such measure on part of the administration to solve the matter with utmost heist. It is a
heart wrenching scenario wherein the students from various parts of world especially from the
developing Asian countries come to Australia to pursue higher education but struggle to get a
suitable roof over their head.
Summary:
The paper shows that Australia has been a dream destination for the international students to
pursue their higher education bringing in 799,371 students in 2017. Australia though earns a
handsome revenue out of the international students visiting and staying in the country for
studying has very little to offer in terms of accommodation. There are very few residential
campuses available in the country while most of the students has to adjust in overcrowded
apartments which comes easy to their budget or they need to afford the luxury of a higher budget
apartment. Australia currently undergoing a housing bubble which has tended to make housing a
difficult proposition and it is the international students who are experiencing it dearly.
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REFERENCES
ABC News, 2018. 'Queue jump' for foreign enrolments, existing UTAS students told 'search
Gumtree' for lodgings. [Online]
Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-11/utas-student-accommodation-preference-
to-foreign-enrolments/10603978
[Accessed 06 April 2019].
Australia.gov.au, 2019. International students | australia.gov.au. [Online]
Available at: https://www.australia.gov.au/information-and-services/education-and-training/
international-students
[Accessed 07 April 2019].
Cuervo, H. & Wyn, J., 2016. An unspoken crisis: The ‘scarring effects’ of the complex nexus
between education and work on two generations of young Australians. International Journal of
Lifelong Education, 35(2), pp. 122-135.
Grimmer, L., Vorobjovas-Pinta, O. & Massey, M., 2019. Regulating, then deregulating Airbnb-
The unique case of Tasmania (Australia). Annals of Tourism Research, 10(2), pp. 55-64.
Humanrights.gov.au, 2012. Accommodation issues under the DDA and Disability Convention |
Australian Human Rights Commission. [Online]
Available at: https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/disability-rights/projects/
accommodation-issues-under-dda-and-disability-convention
[Accessed 06 April 2019].
Jakubowicz, A. & Monani, D., 2015. Mapping progress: Human rights and international students
in Australia. Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 7(3), pp. 61-80.
Nyland, C. & Tran, L., 2019. The consumer rights of international students in the Australian
vocational education and training sector. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 2(1), pp.
1-17.
Studies in Australia, 2019. International students in Australia | Study in Australia. [Online]
Available at: https://www.studiesinaustralia.com/studying-in-australia/why-study-in-australia/
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international-students-in-australia
[Accessed 03 April 2019].
the Guardian, 2019. Australian house prices falling at fastest rate in a decade. [Online]
Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jan/02/australian-house-prices-
falling-at-fastest-rate-in-a-decade-data-shows
[Accessed 03 April 2019].
uq.edu.au, 2019. Student Services - Issues to consider. [Online]
Available at: https://www.uq.edu.au/student-services/accommodation/issues-to-consider
[Accessed 03 April 2019].
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