The Australian Education industry is experiencing good times at the moment:

• Australia is the third most popular study destination in the world (after the USA and the UK).
• QS ranked 7 Aussie cities in the top 75 cities to come and study in the world.
• The Australian education sector has been growing at double digit rates in recent years.
• The Higher Education sector alone has grown close to 10% in the last two years.
• There are more than 1.1 million people studying in Australia (East coast Capital cities being the most popular study destinations).
• The biggest cohort  are coming from China and India (40% of the entire study population), followed by Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam, Nepal and Indonesia , Thailand and Brazil

However it is not all good news.

Education fees have gone up consistently in the last decade, with some universities now charging $20,000 -and more- for one semester.

In the IS Barometer survey (250,000 people), Australia consistently rates poorly for affordability of rooms and overall living costs.

The country has also experienced an undersupply of PBSA. This means that the high growth in numbers and the low number of places to live is reaching crisis numbers which some research firms saying it is now in the hundreds of thousands. At the moment the supply of purposed built beds (PBSA) is only of 11.5% of the student population.

It is well known that investors are coming to Australia to develop new PBSA projects. It makes total sense from a financial point of view:

• growth is strong in the accom market
• It is also an opportunity for them to move away from traditional markets.
• The discrepancy in numbers is so big, it means  high occupancy rates, healthy revenues robust profits and therefore an attractive investment.

Savills released a report that shows that more than $2 billion has been injected into PBSA projects across Australia. This will bring a boost in beds of 4% in Melbourne, 6% in Brisbane and 2% in Sydney.

The lack of PBSA has also boosted the appearance of illegal hosting, with shocking cases where people end up living in places that are not even close to appropriate.

Federal and local governments have also realised the reality of the situation and are working on and implementing strategies to try and minimise the negative impact of the circumstances and obviously try to help people coming to study to Australia from overseas.

The other issue, is that many of new high-end developments will help a small group of people that can already afford high standards of living. The real question is how can we start helping those who arrive with a limited budget and cannot really afford to stay in brand new developments?

This is why Bedssi was created.

We are focusing on engaging and working with the local communities. Together we can start providing affordable room options.

Bedssi is focusing on:

• Educating the community (encouraging them to become hosts)
  For some reason, people have the wrong image regarding students.
  The reality is that they tend to be respectful and follow house rules. There are also many types of students. Hosts can choose from Bachelor, ELICOS and Study Abroad & Exchange Students, to Master, PhD and Executive Education students. These provides them with great options. In fact, research shows that people who have hosted students create long-life friendships (direct results of having positive experiences).
• Communicating the current opportunities. Hosts will be able to earn extra money whilst helping a person that needs lots of help and support right now.  The majority of students look for medium to long term stays, therefore: 1. They would provide a stable income for the hosts, allowing them to plan ahead. 2. Given the length of the stays, students (and hosts) would simply comply with the state’s tenancy legislation (making the whole process easy).

We are working towards solutions that can help not only students but also the education institutions, education agents and local governments.  Our focus is to bring transparency into the  industry by showcasing as much information as possible from each listing (hosts can even insert videos). In this way a person is able to take informed decisions when booking a bedroom . All users (guests and hosts alike) also need to be verified before any booking can be made (bringing peace of mind within the Bedssi community).

Bedssi is currently looking for new hosts and new partnerships.

Please do not hesitate in forwarding this article to anybody you think could benefit from our service.

If you want to know more about Bedssi please feel free to contact us at anytime.