student accomodation

I do it. Please email me or post any specific questions.

Cheers,

Simon Macks
Mortgage Broker
http://www.mortgagehunter.com.au
0425 228 985

Comments may not be relevant to individual circumstances. If you intend making any investment, financial or taxation decision you should consult a professional adviser.

Hector,

It’s good you are researching this area as some people I know tried to go into it with a belief that students were simply standard renters with less money….and got burnt quite badly. It’s dangerous to make this type of assumption!!!!

Some points to bear in mind:

– There are good and bad times to have your property available for rental to students. As students tend to all start uni at the same time you need to have the property ready for tenancy at this time or you run a higher risk of ending up vacant for a semester, or even an entire year. There is literally a two week or so rush for accomodation at the start of the scholastic year.

– Many students rent for the uni ‘year’ and then end their rental & go home for a month or two. So be prepared to weather a higher vacancy rate than with standard rentals.

– Try to locate a property that is just as attractive to non-students as it is to students. This reduces your risk of higher vacancies or issues should other providers build more atttractive specialised student accomodation nearby.

– Students generally prefer not to live alone. One bedroom units are less attractive to many students than 2+ bedroom units…and generally cost them more as well (it’s cheaper to share rent & food expenses).

– There is often a shortage of low-cost student accomodation…and many unis & other tertiary education institutions have rental officers or departments who assist students in locating appropriate accomodations – make sure you speak with these people so that they can refer student renters to you!

– If you want to do REALLY well out of student rentals, look for creaive solutions…..ways you can rent by the room, partially furnish for overseas students (desk, bed, drawers, etc) or otherwise create a more student friendly space.

– Students are more likely to make properties wear hard. This isn’t saying they’re any more destructive than other tenants, but wear and tear on a property can be significantly higher. Make sure you fit out properties with hard wearing carpets & fixtures.

For more comments on the topic from people who’ve done it, visit http://www.somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9549&highlight=Student+Accomodation

Cheers,

Aceyducey

– Jan L.A. van de Snepscheut

Just a few points to add. Many International students are in Australia and have loans to cover their tuition and living skills from their home country. These loans are at market rates, and many students do have student poverty whilst in Australia. I think it’s a myth that International students are generally wealthy. Also, exchange rates have a large effect on International students’ ability to study. Often, as our dollar increases in value, another culture’s currency might decrease, meaning the money they’ve budgeted for whilst here, is now not sufficient.

I am not making these points so that people might see International students as a “risk”. Rather, I am just debunking some myths that are commonly stated about these students.

kay henry

Hi Hector,

I would be a little concerned if the property was ‘solely’ for students – you need to have a ‘fall back’ position.

If you cannot find a student tenant what are your alternatives? One of our properties has had students in it for the duration but it is also suitable for a standard tenancy.

We let our property furnished with TV, beds, dining & lounge settings, white goods etc.

Our lease agreements are structured for 12 month periods and expire just prior to the new year rush – this helps to reduce the possibility of mid year vacancies.

Derek
[email protected]

Property Investment Support Available. Ongoing and never stopping. PM welcome.

I do it slightly different as I am close to the uni and single…but it may be food for thought for someone. I have homestay students that come and stay with me for a month or so, paying $170 per week for board. When they are ready I funnel them into my investment property if there is a room available, for a cheaper rate of $120 per romm/week. no garage required so I converted that to bedrroms and now have 6 bedrooms. I only take girls, mostly chinese or japanese as they don’t like to share with boys, want their own space and very rarely venture out of their rooms. But they do want lockable doors, TV, broadband (Broadband is an extra charge of $10/week. Each room has a phone connection but they must connect up themselves if they want a phone (they often need help to do this) so it runs along the lines of purpose built student accomodation, which I funnel the ones I cannot put up into, but they don’t like signing 46/52 week leases. Unis have plenty of summer students, not to mention english courses they need to pass before starting uni. I like managing them myself and care about ‘my girls’ as I have found that the new foreign female student with poor english needs a bit of help. I also find that their parents like to know they are safe.
The purpose built accomodation here (Gold Coast books out fairly solidly as it is often difficult for me to find some students accomodation, at the same time there seems to be a turn over in unit owners, so something mustnt be quite right – perhaps management. Poor management would have a big impact on the success of the unit.