Why Redefine likes Melbourne for its student housing offering

Redefine Properties’ student housing arm Respublica has chosen Melbourne as the first Australian city in its offshore expansion programme.

The group says that it will bring its student accommodation offering to Melbourne in 2019, making it the first South African student accommodation provider to venture abroad.

The group said it would announce details of its first project, which is set to include some 900 beds located in Melbourne and have a development cost of A$140m ($106m) in the near future. The company has pinpointed Melbourne as an undersupplied market given the significant demand there from international students for high-quality academic accommodation products.

"University education is the second biggest export for Australia, after natural resources. We want to begin with Melbourne, where there is significant demand. We have set up the development of our first project in the city. It will be similar to our South African product. However, it will be tailored slightly to suit the needs of the predominantly Asian international student population," said CEO Craig McMurray.

Locally, Respublica offers about 6,400 beds to students in Pretoria, Johannesburg and Midrand. Recently, it completed the first two of four residence buildings as part of the Hatfield Square redevelopment project in Pretoria. Subsequent phases would be completed by the end of 2017 and the middle of 2018.
McMurray said there had been an oversupply of top-end Pretoria accommodation.