Investors, landlords should assist student tenants
Investors and landlords have been called on to consider the specific requirements of student tenants by a peak university body.
Landlords would do well to understand the “unusual circumstances” of tertiary students by working with university groups in developing quality controls, Universities Australia chief executive officer Glenn Withers told Smart Property Investment.
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“It is very difficult to work with representative landlord associations. They have said explicitly to us that they don’t see it as a responsibility of theirs to seek any way to impose or develop this practice, which we think is very short sighted,” Dr Withers said.
Providing information about transport, health care, financial services and facilities to new students would be one of the ways that landlords and property managers could help their student tenants, particularly those from overseas on international student visas.
Agreeing to undergo quality checks by universities to ensure that a high health standard remains and maximum tenant requirement is not exceeded would be on the list of considerations for investors.
“[Investors and landlords] make a lot of profits and money from these students and simply to develop good practice guidelines and processes of self regulation to ensure adherence to appropriate standards, we think would be a big step forward and we would like them to step up to the plate on that much more,” he said.
