Plan to Double Canberra’s Student Beds Moves Ahead

Plans for a project that would double the number of student beds in the national capital have moved forward.

The proposal now on exhibition with the ACT Planning department outlines plans to develop a site at 496 Northbourne Avenue, Dickson, into a 705-bed purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) complex.

SMEC Consultants were brought in by 496 Developments Pty Ltd—linked to Wayne Gregory and Thomas Trevillian, according to ASIC documents—to develop the project. 

The site 5km north of the CBD is about 200m from light rail and bus services.

The developer wants to build two towers, designed by Cox Architecture, centred around a public plaza with a “high level of student amenity”.

Building A would comprise a nine-storey block of 173 shared single occupancy units in one, two and three bedrooms.

Fronting Northbourne Avenue, it would include a ground-floor communal dining area and common room, as well as a commercial tenancy. 

▲ Rendering of the Cox Architecture-designed PBSA proposal.

Building B, fronting Antill and Challis streets, comprises 10 storeys and 532 beds. 

As well as two commercial tenancies on the ground floor, the larger block would also have music, prayer and study rooms, recreational spaces including rooftop gardens, a gym and yoga rooms.

As well as 320 carparking spaces, there are provisions for 778 bicycle parking spaces and 307 basement storage cages. 

The proposal includes the demolition of a four-storey commercial building on the site, and excavation to 10m to provide three levels of basement parking as well as deep soil planting of 14.4 per cent of the site to support plant growth for urban cooling and shading.

▲ The proposal would double the number of PBSA beds in Canberra.

The proposed development would be built on a key gateway site close to the “retail, commercial, and employment opportunities offered by the Dickson Group Centre”, the development outcomes report said. 

A Property Council of Australia report released this year found that Canberra had the smallest pipeline for PBSA in the country, with just 378 beds at the development application stage and no projects under construction. That compares with Victoria’s 9338 and NSW’s 9285 beds in progress.

Previously, Canberra was sitting at 2.7 students per bed, making it the best-supplied market for student housing in the country.

But with the likes of the University of New South Wales spending $1 billion on a new satellite campus in the territory that may well be changing—its Canberra campus alone would support around 6000 students.