Property Council welcomes student accommodation incentives

Property Council welcomes student accommodation incentivesThe Property Council of Australia has welcomed Brisbane City Council and Queensland Urban Utilities’ introduction of an infrastructure charges reduction for the development of student accommodation within Brisbane’s inner city. As Brisbane continues to mature as Australia’s new world city, we must ensure a range of accommodation options exist within our city centre in order to capitalise on the growing international student market.Recent experience shows that students are increasingly keen to locate themselves close to the city centre, however our traditional student accommodation offering does not cater for this preference.The current shortage in student accommodation is reflective of the situation we saw four years ago with respect to 4 and 5 star hotels. As a direct result of Brisbane City Council taking a proactive stance on attracting hotel investment and introducing a temporary infrastructure charges moratorium, we saw ten hotels built- and the CBD’s hotel shortage eliminated- within a very short period of time.In addition to new student accommodation providing increased diversity of housing within the inner city, there is also the potential to leverage new development to activate underutilised parts of the CBD, enliven our ‘after hours’ culture, support city businesses, and increase safety for residents and visitors. Reducing infrastructure charges for student accommodation will also encourage developers to investigate ‘re-lifing’ older office buildings through converting them into new and innovative forms of housing. Approximately 51 per cent of Brisbane’s buildings are below A grade and are facing strong market competition from newer buildings with comparable rents. Incentivising owners and developers to convert existing buildings into new uses is the most effective tool to remove a portion of this stock from the market. This discount will greatly improve the business case for what would otherwise be an insurmountable renewal project for many proponents. The Property Council commends Brisbane City Council for its leadership in stimulating development that will ensure our city is well positioned to capitalise on the ever-growing international student market.The Property Council’s media release can be found below.