ANU to squeeze in another 1023 accommodation units

eyeLikeCarrots said :

$364 a week each… for the students ? Or is that the current average for a 1bdr in Civic ?

Yes, that’s for the students (For a 1br)
Share in a 5br unilodge unit costs $220pw

Unilodge is a private company, seeking to profit from the rich parents of international students. Unilodge residents even have to pay to use the laundry!

This is not affordable housing by most students’ definitions (when a room in a share house in O’Connor can be had for ~$150/week (+utilities, internet)

It’s time for ANU to start channeling their money into not-for-profit housing options like student run co-ops (Sydney University is currently building 5 more of these) and traditional colleges

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

Hey, 1023 is a great number! It’s (snip) the magic number that makes your GPS work (snip)

Now you’ve got my attention. How does it make your GPS work, exactly?

NoAddedMSG said :

I don’t think that the Uni has any plans to manage these apartments themselves, it is going to be privately run (ie UniLodge).

I hope not, UniLodge has been a dogs breakfast, taking advantage of international students.

Ooh, and it’s the product of three prime numbers – 3, 11 and 31.

Also… 1023… number is fail, atleast build 1024 and make it a real number!

Hey, 1023 is a great number! It’s a Mersenne number, the smallest number with 4 different digits, the highest number you can count to in binary on your fingers, the magic number that makes your GPS work, and sorta kinda the last bit of the Avogadro constant (yes, I’m reaching now…).

$400 a week according to the CT hardly sounds affordable.

7 days after

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/civic-set-for-record-growth/1841587.aspx?order=0

I don’t think that the Uni has any plans to manage these apartments themselves, it is going to be privately run (ie UniLodge). So the Uni won’t be getting the rental income from these. Perhaps some building rental? Either wau shaneb, the payoff for the uni is not so much in the weekly rental money but in being able to continue with the First Year Guarentee while not having to fork out extra $$ to house overflow students in motels around the city.

$364 a week each… for the students ? Or is that the current average for a 1bdr in Civic ?

Also… 1023… number is fail, atleast build 1024 and make it a real number!

A couple of comments:

The ACT government gave ANU the $28 million land in city west (formerly carpark space?), and the federal government gave about $7 million.

The apartments are priced at 20% below the price of other apartments near civic, but they are not comparable because they are smaller and have some shared facilities. ANU would only get about 80% of “market rent” even if placed on the open market.

Many of these units have been previously announced and some are even already under construction. These are misleadingly included in the announcement anyway.

The ANU has said that the project cost is about $200 million total. $28 million comes from the ACT government and $7 million from the federal government. Thus, the apartments cost the ANU about $161,000 each. Single bedroom apartments are $364 per week. Don’t think for a minute that they are doing students a favour.