When Zoe Jiang was at home in China, packing her bags to stay in Sydney, she did not think to bring an item that would prove essential — a tent.
Key points:
- Thousands of international students flooded back into Australia in January to resume their studies
- Sydney’s rental vacancy rate has plummeted, leading to a 35 per cent rise in unit rents
- The Tenants Union says some international students have been forced into unlawful and abusive living situations
The 27-year-old finance student arrived in Australia in January, only to find rental prices so high that she had to rely on short-stay accommodation.
At one of the short stays, Ms Jiang had no room of her own. She had to pitch a tent in the middle of the living room so she could have some privacy from her housemates who came home late.
 It cost $300 a week in rent.
“I have never had a night in a tent before,” she said.
“It’s a fresh experience, and I think camping in a living room is very different.”
Ms Jiang has now secured long-term accommodation, but this was just one of three places she stayed in less than two months.
She is one of many international students caught in the growing rental shortage across Australia.
Housing advocates are concerned that international students are at risk of exploitation and are calling on universities and governments to step in and offer support.
International students face extra barriers to finding accommodation
People across Australia are queuing to inspect rental properties amid fierce competition.(ABC News)
Ms Jiang is one of the thousands of Chinese international students who had to rush back to Australia or risk losing their qualifications under a new Chinese government policy.
She joined the 59,000 international students who arrived in Australia in January, a number “more than double” the same period last year, according to Universities Australia.
But Sydney’s rental vacancy rate has reached its lowest point, leading to a 35 per cent rise in unit rents across the city.
Hundreds of people are lining up outside rental inspections, but international students face extra barriers.
Yeganeh Soltanpour, the national president of the Council of International Students Australia, said many newly arrived international students are often overlooked by real estate agents.
“[They] don’t have a rental history because they are from overseas, so the chance for them to apply for a rental and get it is a lot lower,” she said.
And while local students may be able to find rental vacancies through personal and family networks, new international students have “almost zero connections” with local communities.
“They can’t ask someone for help, they don’t always know where to look at … [and] they might not know a lot about the areas,” she said.
“They may not even know how to use public transport properly.
“This leads to the issue that they have to choose homes within the CBD area, which means they have to pay more rent.”
Students aren’t to blame for rental crisis, experts say
Rents in Sydney have gone up 35 per cent for units.(ABC News: Nick Sas)
Zoe Jiang is not the only international student forced to stay in a room not designed for sleeping.
But according to Leo Patterson-Ross, the CEO of the Tenants’ Union of NSW, transforming a living room into a bedroom could be unlawful.
“The assumption is that it is unlawful under planning rules, under local councils, to convert a room to her bedroom without getting consent from council,” he said.
Mr Patterson-Ross said he had seen “some very unlawful and often abusive behaviour” from landlords and head tenants who sublet rooms to students.
These include taking students’ passports and threatening to report them to the immigration department if they breach the tenancy agreement.
He also said that to prevent exploitation against international students, the government needs to fix “the fundamental issue” that now affects everyone.
“We just do not have enough homes for everyone in Australia,” he said.
“And that supply is not just the buildings, but also the pricing of the buildings.”
He also called for an independent third-party audit to ensure rentals in the market are of good quality rather than pushing renters to bear the responsibility.
Ms Soltanpour has called on international students to support each other to counter the rental crisis while stressing that it was not their responsibility to “fix the issue”.
She also said universities must step in and offer more support for students struggling to navigate the rental shortage.
The chief executive of Universities Australia, Catriona Jackson, acknowledged that securing a rental anywhere in Australia is challenging for international students at the moment.
“Universities continue to support students by providing information on accommodation options before they arrive in Australia along with various other support services,” she said.
“We encourage any student struggling to secure housing or facing financial pressures to reach out to their university for assistance.”
Meanwhile, life for Ms Jiang has turned a corner.
She has found her own room in north Sydney, and it costs her $300 per week — the same as when she was sleeping in a tent.
On the day she moved in, she met her new neighbour, an elderly Italian woman who migrated to Australia when she was 19.
Ms Jiang’s new neighbour invited her to come over for a cup of tea and encouraged Ms Jiang to make new friends during her study in Australia because “life is a gift”.
“It’s such a great day,” Ms Jiang wrote on social media.
