Education fees have gone up consistently in the last decade, with some universities now charging $20,000 -and more- for one semester.
In the IS Barometer survey (250,000 people), Australia consistently rates poorly for affordability of rooms and overall living costs.
The country has also experienced an undersupply of PBSA. This means that the high growth in numbers and the low number of places to live is reaching crisis numbers which some research firms saying it is now in the hundreds of thousands. At the moment the supply of purposed built beds (PBSA) is only of 11.5% of the student population.
It is well known that investors are coming to Australia to develop new PBSA projects. It makes total sense from a financial point of view:
Savills released a report that shows that more than $2 billion has been injected into PBSA projects across Australia. This will bring a boost in beds of 4% in Melbourne, 6% in Brisbane and 2% in Sydney.
The lack of PBSA has also boosted the appearance of illegal hosting, with shocking cases where people end up living in places that are not even close to appropriate.
Federal and local governments have also realised the reality of the situation and are working on and implementing strategies to try and minimise the negative impact of the circumstances and obviously try to help people coming to study to Australia from overseas.
The other issue, is that many of new high-end developments will help a small group of people that can already afford high standards of living. The real question is how can we start helping those who arrive with a limited budget and cannot really afford to stay in brand new developments?
We are focusing on engaging and working with the local communities. Together we can start providing affordable room options.
Bedssi is focusing on:
We are working towards solutions that can help not only students but also the education institutions, education agents and local governments. Our focus is to bring transparency into the industry by showcasing as much information as possible from each listing (hosts can even insert videos). In this way a person is able to take informed decisions when booking a bedroom . All users (guests and hosts alike) also need to be verified before any booking can be made (bringing peace of mind within the Bedssi community).
Bedssi is currently looking for new hosts and new partnerships.
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If you want to know more about Bedssi please feel free to contact us at anytime.