Wee Hur Plans Third Student Digs for Sydney

Wee Hur is banking on the full return of international students, lodging plans for its third building on a block just south of Sydney's CBD.

The $53-million plans made the State Significant Development threshold and include an 18-storey with 411 beds at 104-116 Regent Street, Redfern.

The building, designed by Antoniades Architects, has a rust-coloured podium with two joint tower forms, ground floor retail and bicycle parking.

There is also outdoor terraces above level four and on the rooftop by RPS Landscape in the plans. 

The 1366sq m vacant site was once home to a service station until late 2020 when BP Australia sold it for $46.1 million to Wee Hur.

The building, on the corner of the block near Redfern Train Station, adds to Wee Hur's Gibbons Street tower, fast-tracked in 2020 and its other Regent Street tower, both of 18 storeys.

▲ The woven design on Wee Hur's latest proposed student accommodation building was inspired by the works of the Gadigal people, according to Antoniades Architects.

Wee Hur is delivering more than 5700 beds of purpose-built student accommodation n Australia, including completed and approved projects in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney.

Despite challenging conditions, the international student sector has attracted a lot of investment including Scape, which picked up three University of Technology Sydney buildings for about $95 million.

The reopening of international borders in most states and territories will mean the 130,000 international student visa holders will be able fill vacancies in the student accommodation sector.

Savills head of capital markets Conal Newland said although the sector contracted from $40 billion to $23 billion last year, the outlook was positive.

“Investment demand for Australian student accommodation has remained strong, with a lack of available operational stock holding back transactional volumes,” Newland said.

“Investors have therefore sought development-led deals, either directly through acquisitions of sites, or alongside local developers in structured transactions.

“We foresee a strong transactional market in 2022 buoyed by the confidence of occupancy levels improving and gradual re-stabilisation of revenue flows.” 

Sydney ranked as the eighth best student city in 2022, behind Melbourne in sixth and London in the top spot.