Proposed legislative changes to the operation of commercially-run university student accommodation blocks in New Zealand are to be welcomed, says Bayleys national commercial and industrial director Ryan Johnson.
The Government has said interim changes will be in place by the start of the 2020 academic year, with a mandatory code of practice setting out required standards of welfare and pastoral care for boarder students in university halls.
The law changes focusing on students’ wellbeing were brought about following the death of a Canterbury University under-graduate student whose passing went unnoticed at his accommodation block for weeks.
Ryan Johnson said that from a property perspective, it was reassuring to note that the proposed new laws were focused on operational issues rather than structural or physical aspects of the country’s halls of residence.
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“The Government’s suggested changes targeting student accommodation practices highlight that universities, and the private property owners leasing premises to tertiary education bodies, have been professionally diligent in the standard and quality of physical amenity they have delivered to the market,” Mr Johnson said.
“Numerous universities and commercial property developers across new Zealand have been pro-active in both building new stock and modernising existing premises to ensure high degrees of user satisfaction from the student tenants.”
Mr Johnson said that in Tauranga’s CBD, where the University of Waikato (UOW) has opened a new campus, the university leases local Durham Mews and Mayfair Court apartments from the private sector, but is going down the purpose-built path via a partnership with Quintex Properties to develop new facilities.
Quintex Properties has consent for complexes near the Tauranga campus which UOW will lease back and manage.
In Hamilton, the university is building student apartments on its own land, but has said it is open to other models. It is looking to increase bed space in both Hamilton and Tauranga. With a lack of existing commercial property stock suitable for conversion it is focusing on new-build options.
Victoria University of Wellington has 15 residential student accommodation halls with a range of single-room, twin-share, shared apartments, catered and self-catered options. Most halls are within walking distance of the three city university campuses and most are leased by the university from the private sector.
Ian Cassels, of The Wellington Company, champions the student accommodation sector in the capital and has been proactively redeveloping existing commercial property stock into bed space for the city’s growing tertiary student accommodation needs.
Earlier this year, Mr Cassels offered budget accommodation rates in an inner-city student hostel to students feeling the rental property squeeze.
This was only a temporary solution to the capital’s student accommodation woes, as Victoria University of Wellington leases the building through the study year and it was fully-committed from the start of the first semester. However, it did highlight the need for more student-friendly accommodation in Wellington, particularly as tertiary education providers look to recruit more international students.
In 2016, developer Maurice Clark – well-known for his restoration of Wellington’s Old Public Trust building – bought a commercial tower at 143 Willis Street and announced plans to upgrade and repurpose it as a student hall of residence. Now known as Capital Hall, 10 residential floors of the building are leased to Victoria University of Wellington to house over 300 students in fully-furnished, mostly single bedrooms.
Clark’s companies had previously converted three other buildings in the capital to hostels, providing more than 800 rooms.
Late last year, a 280-bed apartment block on Willis Street in central Wellington, which is leased to Wellington Institute of Technology for student accommodation, was sold to Hong Kong-based Value Partners Group for $28.3 million. The furnished apartments with their own bathrooms and kitchens, ranged from studios to two- and four-bedroom units.
Te Pā Tauira – Otago Polytechnic Student Village garnered a raft of industry awards in 2018, with its accommodation complex praised for its scale, quality and innovation. Costing over $20 million, the 231-bed precinct within the main Dunedin campus is owned by Otago Polytechnic, offering dorm rooms, studios and apartments.
At the polytechnic’s central campus in Cromwell, a different approach has been taken with the recent opening of an enclave of five self-contained houses to supplement limited private sector rental opportunities. The houses, which are owned and managed by the polytechnic, can accommodate 25 students, and are oversubscribed. The polytechnic has said it aims to build two more on a similar model, and is exploring other accommodation opportunities.
