Home Property Australia Perth’s first city university campus spurs investment in student accommodation

Perth’s first city university campus spurs investment in student accommodation

  • February 05, 2025
  • by Property Australia
Render of UniLodge Perth Central

With Perth’s first city-based university set to open its doors next year, investors are increasingly looking westward as a destination for new purpose-built student accommodation buildings. 

Perth has typically been a laggard when it comes to the supply of student accommodation. 

The Urbis Student Accommodation Benchmarks created in partnership with the Student Accommodation Council shows that Perth had the lowest number of beds per student.

ACT is the most well supplied capital city market with a benchmark supply of 2.9 total enrolments per bed, with the national benchmark sitting at 6.5 students per bed. 

New South Wales (7.7) and Western Australia (9.9) have the lowest relative level of supply compared to other major markets and the overall national benchmark. According to the report Western Australia has 8,588 beds for students.

“The Perth market has historically been one of the most undersupplied CBDs for student accommodation in Australia,” Student Accommodation Council Executive Director Torie Brown said. 

The $853 million Edith Cowan University (ECU) City campus topped out last December.

When it opens in semester one, 2026, the 11 super-level ECU City campus will bring together creative industries, business, and emerging technologies under one roof in the heart of Perth.

Jointly funded by the Albanese Labor Government, the Cook Labor Government, and ECU, the new campus is set to transform Perth’s CBD and the Perth City Link precinct with a community of more than 10,000 students and staff coming into the City to work, learn, and create.

The campus will span more than 65,000 square metres and integrating the Perth Busport. 

In a sign of growing investor interest, Sirona Urban’s $150 million, 736-bed student tower on the corner of Pier and Wellington St recently topped out. 

UniLodge will operate the building, with Australian Unity, MaxCap and Sirona providing the equity.

“The Sirona Urban Student Accommodation development marks Australian Unity’s first entry into the Perth market in partnership with Unilodge—an encouraging sign of investor confidence in the city,” Ms Brown said. 

“With the new ECU campus drawing more students into the CBD, the demand for purpose-built student accommodation is growing. Investors have recognized this, and we expect more developments to follow.”

Upcoming student accommodation projects include an 832-bed tower on Wellington Street and a 19-story development in Kings Square.

Fiveight in a recent development application laid out plans to incorporate student accommodation into its $400 million revamp of Carillon City, a retail mall in the heart of the CBD. 

If approved, a 17-storey hotel and 30-story student accommodation tower would form centerpiece of the redevelopment, with an open-air central plaza sitting between the two set to contain four levels of retail and hospitality options.