Suburban Success Story Turns PBSA Thinking on its Head

A development collaboration in Melbourne is taking a different approach to student accommodation, taking it from its traditional heartland—the CBDs—and out in the suburbs. It’s using a project at Clayton, 18km south-east of Melbourne, as a litmus test for suburban student housing, and early results suggest the market is ready to graduate from high-density PBSA to quality housing that prioritises wellbeing over scale. Now for the roll call. The developer is WCL Development, the development is the Stockdale Housing project at 4-6 Stockdale Avenue, designed by Parallel Workshop Architects and operated by Circle Community. Their project has achieved full occupancy within two months of completion and is generating rental rates of $550 to $600 a week. Parallel Workshop Architects director Max Bi identified the opportunity in 2019 after noticing market gaps in Clayton’s student housing sector. “Monash students struggle to get accommodation around its universities and often have to stay along the train lines or the city,” Bi tells The Urban Developer . Bi recognised that traditional purpose-built student accommodation focused on high-density commercial buildings. “But we believe there are other types of PBSAs that promote quality of rest, retouch with nature and a slower suburban rhythm,” Bi says. The response was a purpose-built, managed student housing project spanning 1510sq m with a total gross floor area of 2942sq m, including a 689sq m basement. The three-storey building accommodates 65 student rooms from 24sq m to 34.5sq m, with ground-floor units featuring private courtyards. The development incorporates 556sq m of communal spaces for different group sizes. Bi says design differences between suburban and city-centre developments feature “larger room sizes, better natural lighting and ventilation, and has a more local suburban living lifestyle and closer to an abundance of landscaping and a campus-living feeling”. ▲ Parallel Workshops director Max Bi: PBSA can promote quality of rest, retouch with nature and a slower suburban rhythm. This contrasts with city developments where students have “small compact rooms in high-density areas, where it’s noisy and often not an environment for rest or conducive to study”. Construction began in March of 2020 and was completed by February this year despite pandemic delays, using prefabricated structures and standardised designs to maintain schedules. Initial feasibility studies estimated weekly rental rates of $450 to $500 per room with an 8 per cent net gain, according to Bi. Upon completion, rates increased to $550 to $600 a week, delivering a 15 per cent annual return on investment. The project outperformed competing student accommodation at Clayton despite challenging post-Covid market conditions. The success reinforced Bi’s view that suburban student accommodation opportunities are limited but lucrative. “Suburban PBSA is uniquely positioned next to universities. Currently only two locations are viable; Malvern East and Clayton,” he says. “Malvern East and Clayton are ... suburbs where there is high rental demand but where apartment developments are not very feasible,” he says. The Clayton context alone highlights significant scale potential. Monash University’s Clayton campus— the largest of the university’s eight campuses—has 42,477 students who are potentially competing for just 3000 on-campus beds, leaving the vast majority seeking private solutions. ▲ The Green Chemical Futures building at Monash ’ s Clayton campus is a premier centre for environmental science and engineering teaching and research. More broadly, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reports student accommodation approvals nationwide have surged from 1684 rooms in 2021-22 to 5178 in 2023-24, driven by international student numbers rising 15 per cent in 2024 compared with pre-pandemic levels, according to the Department of Education. Victoria accounted for 17.8 per cent of these approvals, with 1135 rooms approved for the City of Melbourne during the period. With most development focused on the city centre, Bi suggests suburban campus locations offer opportunities with less competition despite large student populations. And he says suburban accommodation offers environments where students “can focus on their studies or hang out with more intimate friends” through “dispersed communal areas with different sizes to cater for different-sized group activities all with good natural light and ventilation”. Carparking requirements emerged as the primary planning challenge, with data requirements not matching actual usage patterns, Bi says. At Stockdale, “only 1 to 2 car spots of 12 rented are used” despite council requirements for higher provision. “If we can have a more realistic carparking ratio the yield would outpace the city, as we can reduce the basement costs or provide more communal areas,” he says. If ever there was evidence of this theory in action, it’s at Stockdale. Students have transformed the largely unused and empty basement carpark into an impromptu social hub, hosting hot-pot gatherings and other community activities that would be impossible in cramped city accommodation. Delete Recent planning reforms have supported suburban student accommodation development. “The new rescode has dramatically helped with student accommodation, promoting a more landscape-centric design approach and campus feeling,” Bi says. The target demographic differs from city-centre student housing residents. “Unlike the city PBSAs where size is small and often uncomfortable to stay for long periods, suburban PBSAs offer a room environment more spacious and allows guests and [the] hosting of small gatherings,” Bi says. He identifies students who “enjoy studying alone or in small groups” as preferring suburban accommodation, where “they don’t need to share facilities and can focus on their studies”. Campus proximity takes priority over transport links in suburban developments. He says the amenity and convenience factor becomes crucial because students in suburban accommodation spend significantly more time in their rooms compared with city residents who typically use accommodation primarily for sleeping. And then there are broader safety and security considerations. “Not only for the students but also the parents who send their child thousands of kilometres away, safety and convenience is key,” Bi says. ▲ Parallel Workshop has also worked with RoomingKos on this PBSA project on Beddoe Avenue, Clayton, due for completion by semester 2, 2026. Suburban height limits require larger land parcels for viable projects, with “double or triple sites much more suited to creating community PBSA,” Bi says. The larger footprint enables quality design outcomes that differentiate suburban accommodation from cramped city alternatives. Clayton Council’s 24sq m minimum room size policy supports this approach, “giving great opportunities for natural sunlight penetration, activity spaces and extra storage”. Bi views suburban student accommodation as representing a permanent market shift rather than temporary housing shortage response. The model creates “new communities around the university campus” through purpose-built accommodation that integrates with existing suburban contexts. University engagement remains important for sector development. “It’s clear that the universities have a long waiting list and are hoping established operators would come in to assist the university in providing good safe and community driven PBSA,” Bi says. He says universities could promote “alignment and relationships with more bespoke operators” to benefit both parties and enhance the overall university experience. Stockdale Housing proves there’s demand for quality suburban student accommodation that prioritises wellbeing—and delivers returns. For Bi, this represents just the beginning and now has “a few hundred units in the pipeline for suburban PBSA” to back his call that suburban student accommodation has moved beyond experimental development to become a scalable market opportunity.

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