Developer Plots 120-Room Student Digs in Inner West

A purpose-built student accommodation project has been filed for the central Sydney suburb of Glebe as the sector continues to lift. 

The project has been filed by Sovereign Construction and D&T Pty Ltd, which list Tony and David Royal as directors.

Planned are 120 co-living apartments as well as commercial premises. 

The site at 263 to 279 Broadway, Glebe, would have retail outlets and a gym, as well as a new through-site link connecting Glebe Point Road and Grose Street. 

Designed by SJB Architects, the proposed eight-storey building would replace existing two and four-storey buildings.

The plans also show 128 bike spaces and 470sq m of communal space and a rooftop space with communal seating and barbecues, and a yoga space. 

The site is an amalgamation of three lots totalling 1215sq m and fronting Broadway and Glebe Point Road, next to the Broadway Shopping Centre.

The site is within the Glebe Point Road Heritage Conservation area, It is “sympathetic to the heritage fabric and character” of the area, according to the developers in their submission. 

The project “would facilitate the continued contribution of quality accommodation for nearby universities”, Sovereign said. 

The site is “well connected” to the University of Sydney, the Sydney Institute of Technology, TAFE Ultimo and the Sydney CBD. 

The proposal follows the approval this year of another major PBSA project in the NSW capital. 

In January last year, a development application for a $132-million Macquarie Park residential project was lodged by Centurion Properties Australia Investments, an Australian subsidiary of Centurion Properties, the principal shareholder of Singapore’s Centurion Corporation.

The now-approved project will deliver 732 student rooms across a trio of buildings ranging from 10 to 13. 

Despite recent student visa changes, student accommodation continues to prove a solid bet with JLL analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics data showing that temporary higher education visa holders accounted for 33.9 per cent of net overseas migration in the 2022-2023 financial year.