Guild calls for urgent overhaul of student housing after landmark report exposes affordability, safety and governance failures
The Curtin Student Guild has released a landmark report revealing that student housing at Curtin University is increasingly unaffordable, frequently unsafe and governed by a system that leaves students with too few rights and too little accountability.
Stacked Against Students: The Reality of Student Housing at Curtin University draws on a joint Curtin Student Guild and Make Renting Fair WA survey, student testimony, accommodation agreements and evidence collected about living conditions across Curtin-affiliated housing.
The report found that:
- Curtin student accommodation is structurally unaffordable, with some students paying up to 162 per cent of the maximum Youth Allowance rate on rent alone.
- More than two-thirds, or 67.4 per cent, of on-campus residents reported problems with the condition or quality of their accommodation.
- Affordability, maintenance and safety were identified by students as the highest priorities for reform.
- Many students live in accommodation that becomes unbearably hot during summer, with inadequate cooling and poor ventilation.
- Students reported security failures, delayed maintenance and ineffective complaints processes.
- Student accommodation remains largely outside the Residential Tenancies Act, leaving residents without many of the protections available to other renters.
- A shortage of student accommodation in Kalgoorlie is leaving students struggling to secure housing and creating a barrier to study, particularly for those required to relocate for courses.
The Guild is calling for immediate rent reductions and a rent freeze, urgent cooling and security upgrades, stronger maintenance standards, enforceable minimum housing protections and transparent complaints processes.
It is also calling for student accommodation agreements and governance arrangements to be rewritten so that students have clear rights, fairer financial terms and a genuine role in decisions affecting where they live.
The report comes as the Western Australian Government considers reforms that could extend stronger legal protections to student accommodation.
The Guild has welcomed that process and is urging the State Government to ensure student residents are covered by minimum standards for liveability, safety, maintenance, privacy, fees, rent increases, dispute resolution and security of tenure.
The Guild is also calling on Curtin University to act immediately rather than wait for legislation, including by working directly with students, reducing rents, improving cooling and security, strengthening oversight of accommodation providers and establishing transparent student representation in housing governance.
Read the landmark report here.