During the past 12 years, the number of purpose-built student accommodation beds in Australia has grown by 70 per cent, according to Urbis director Clinton Ostwald, and now sits around 137,000.

Those numbers will lift even further, but the models continue to evolve. Ostwald told The Urban Developer that “we are actually seeing more activity from universities at the moment, looking at doing their own development”.

And at La Trobe University, where a $5-billion precinct will include more than 9300 homes [pictured top], masterplanning director Jodie Harris says that “our view of campus life and what every student needs has very much broadened”.