HOUSING
MEMBER EXPERT
Housing boom puts universities in a contradictory position While university workers have been asked to go above and beyond many times over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, staff at the University of Wollongong received an email last month that contained a surprising request. UOW’s Housing Services team was asking staff to get in touch if they had a spare room or granny flat that they might be willing to let to a student during the upcoming semester.
UOW’s Housing Services team was asking staff to get in touch if they had a spare room or granny flat that they might be willing to let to a student during the upcoming semester.
Dr Alistair Sisson University of Wollongong
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As in many regions in NSW, house prices and rents in the Illawarra have skyrocketed since early 2020. The median rent in Wollongong has risen by $50 per week since the beginning of the pandemic and rental vacancies have plummeted from 2.2% to 0.6%. The combination of Sydney-siders who took the opportunity afforded by working from home to move away from busy urban areas to locations offering larger homes and a different lifestyle, and others moving to find cheaper housing, has led to sharp increase in cost and a desperate shortage of rental housing that is now being felt by returning or commencing students. In August 2021, UOW management took this regional property boom as an opportune time to sell three off-campus student housing facilities: Marketview, Weerona College and International House. Apparently, the move would 'release surplus assets onto the region’s buoyant property market in a move certain to benefit the local economy while strengthening the University’s
Sentry
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FEBRUARY 2022
capacity to continue to respond to the financial challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic'. Management reversed their decision to sell International House in February, but appears set to proceed with the sale of Marketview and Weerona College. This short episode reveals the contradictory position in which universities find themselves when it comes to housing and real estate: they stand to make large returns from rising property values but their students and staff – casualised workers in particular, who are much more likely to be renters – are finding it increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to find a home. This is not a recent phenomenon, nor one limited to regional universities. Housing costs near universities in major cities have long been unaffordable for most students and many staff. High housing costs have forced students into sharehousing that is often overcrowded, precarious and highly exploitative. They have caused staff and students to live further
