The Student Accommodation Council has congratulated the government for finally doing its own modelling on the impact of international students in the rental market – finding they make up less than seven per cent of all rental homes.

The modelling comes six months after the Council’s own report which revealed international students are not the cause of the housing crisis.

It was revealed in Senate committee hearings last week that neither Treasury nor the Education Department had modelled up the impact of students on the housing market before they announced their policy to restrict student visas.

“I’m pleased the government has finally done its homework and looked at the impact of international students on the rental market. Better late than never,” Executive Director of the Student Accommodation Council Torie Brown said.

“Their data mirrors our own findings, that international students make up less than seven per cent of the entire rental market.

“International students largely live in CBDs and adjacent to major university campuses, where they favour apartments and purpose-built student accommodation. The government’s own analysis has found they are not competing for family homes out in the suburbs.

“The housing crisis in Australia has been in the making for twenty years.

“Historically low housing supply, slow planning systems, smaller household sizes and a shift towards people using their spare bedrooms as offices instead of bedrooms are the real reasons behind the housing crisis.

“We surveyed our members before the beginning of semester two and found there was availability of student accommodation in most capital cities, including good availability in Melbourne.

“Rather than cutting student numbers dramatically, it would make more sense to help suitable international students book student accommodation beds before they arrive in the country.

“Then government needs to take a long-term look at the structural supply issues in our country. We can’t blame international students for a problem we created.”