The Australian real estate market has benefited from waves of international students attending Australian Schools, Colleges and Universities. A high percentage of Asian students often purchase an apartment for their accommodation needs verses entering into shared housing.

Beijing, China -- (ReleaseWire) -- 01/06/2014 --UCHK CEO Scott O. Talbot said: “In 2013, 112,665 students from China PRC enrolled at Australian education institutions, many of these students and their families are also property investors”

In some circumstances, the parents of students have also decided to accompany an international student under the Australian Student Guardian (subclass 580) visa.

There were 379,214 enrollments by full-fee paying international students in Australia on a student visa as at year-to-date (YTD) June 2013.

“In addition to buying an apartment, the economic benefits of 379,214 International Students is manifold, whilst many of these students purchase real estate, additionally their contributions to local economies as consumers is significant ” Said Scott O. Talbot

The Higher Education sector was ranked first by volume of enrollments and by volume of commencements at YTD June 2013. The two largest markets for enrollments were China (40.0%) and Malaysia (7.1%). The sector recorded a decline in enrollments of 2.6% however commencements increased by 3.3% on YTD June 2012 figures. Post-graduate research commencements were up by 2.5% over the same period, while other post-graduate commencements grew by 13.7%. Commencements at the under- graduate level of study declined by 2.7%.

The growth in Higher Education commencements in the first half of 2013 follows a nearly 12% growth in ELICOS commencements in the last half of 2012 and almost 15% growth in Higher Education student visas granted to offshore applicants in the first quarter of 20132 (compared to the equivalent period in 2012). This is likely to be the result of Australian Government reforms introduced in response to the Knight Review of Australia student visa system, notably the introduction of streamlined visa processing and new arrangements for post-study work visas.

The largest markets by volume of enrollments were China (26.8%) and the USA (17.4%). Commencements from China increased by 19.4% in YTD June 2012 figures however those from the USA declined by 11.7%.

Australian Education Enrollments Commencements by Sector

2012 - 2013

195,387 - 190,375 - Higher Education
105,664 - 93,180 - VET
55,800 - 64,255 - ELICOS
15,111 - 14,280 - Schools
15,925 - 17,124 - Non-award

Top 5 nationalities contributed 53.7% of Australia’s enrollments in all sectors

115,591 - 112,665 - China
41,844 - 34,867 - India
20,613 - 19,911 - Republic of Korea
17,000 - 18,294 - Vietnam
18,596 - 17,802 - Malaysia
174,243 - 175,675 - Other nationalities