Melbourne student housing getting a slick new look custom-made for Gen Z

The Switch student accommodation in A’Beckett St, Melbourne, will offer residents CBD views from a rooftop space complete with a DJ booth.

Forget the old notion of university students being constantly broke, next year they’re expected to spend an incredible $321.8m in the City of Melbourne.

And they’re honing in on increasingly lavish student buildings custom-built to Gen Z tastes — featuring everything from rooftop DJ booths, to gyms, podcast studios and performance theatres.

New Student Accommodation Council figures have revealed the average student resident in the city spends $4810 on booze, food and entertainment a month, and their numbers are tipped to grow in the next year with more internationals returning to Australian universities.

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SAC executive director Torie Brown said they were likely to outspend the average office worker who might buy lunch and a coffee, making them an important part of the CBD’s post-pandemic recovery.

The report by the subsidiary of the Property Council of Australia also shows the city’s rental crisis is increasingly pushing local students into the towers dotted around Melbourne’s top universities.

An honesty kitchen gives students scope to prepare meals without going to the shops.

Alternatively, they can cook in their own unit.

The Victorian capital is already the most successful student accommodation space in the country, but a wave of pandemic-era high-quality new buildings has brought the city’s total student-only beds numbers to 21,150.

“And if you didn’t have those student beds, you’d have 21,000 more competing in the rental market,” Ms Brown said.

She added features like gyms and theatre rooms were increasingly common among new providers in recent years, and would be helping encourage international students choose universities here instead of other education cities around the world.

Shared lounge areas will be warmed by a fireplace and sun-facing windows.

Space for study and relaxation feature in the apartments.

“The number one driver is university rankings, then there is a decision that they make with their parents about where they will look for a building that they find appealing, that looks safe and has amenities,” she said.

“And the quality of (Melbourne) student accommodation is really high, especially for a lot of new ones that came online during the pandemic, and we are now seeing students prefer that quality.”

The backers of Melbourne’s latest student accommodation tower, The Switch at 198 A’Beckett St, intend to house 641 students in the 28-storey complex when it opens in February next year.

A gym is increasingly seen as a requirement for new student accommodation towers.

The tower will be located on the northern side of Melbourne near the Queen Victoria Market.

Switch co-founder Craig Oliver said it was about “the experience that students want to have” in addition to a rooftop DJ booth, podcast studio, lounge spaces and a gym, there would also be novel inclusions such as bamboo bikes to “tap into the unique characteristics of Gen Z”.

“It’s about living life to the fullest and experiencing the greatness of Melbourne,” Mr Oliver said.

Working alongside co-founder David Cameron, he said innovations including mobile phone activated locks, a safety app and tech-enabled bedheads had been gleaned from exploring student accommodation around the world and years spent working as property management professionals.

International student Yuki Inoue, 19, will move to the Switch student accommodation building in A’Beckett, St Melbourne, next year.

The building will also feature spaces for collaborative work.

Among those planning to move in next year is Japanese international student Yuki Inoue, 19, who currently studies at RMIT said the amenities and shared spaces had appealed.

Mr Oliver added they were hoping to obtain a few more Melbourne sites in the near future.

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