[APP] 29 Twin Street | 124m | 38lvls | Student accom

[slenderman]

I'm going to go against popular opinion. I don't particularly like it at this stage. The "window pods" on the northern wall look random and abrupt, especially on the close up render. It looks a bit jarring in my opinion. The render makes the building look fairly sleek, but renders can be deceptive as others have already pointed out. Hopefully we get more information on the cladding soon.

The street level looks pretty good though, so credit for that.

[Algernon]

Can't help but think what happens to these buildings when the student boom dies down

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I don't think the market is heading toward saturation any time soon. You need to give some consideration to the market and what aspect of it is booming. The supply side is booming. The demand side is also very strong. But it's not strong because of the growth in student numbers, but because of the wider property market is specialising and filling a glaring hole in the existing market.

To elaborate: Adelaide has something like 35,000 foreign students with annual growth around the 3% mark. Not booming, but fairly strong growth. But importantly, when Adelaide embarked on this project of becoming an international student destination of sorts, it had next to no dwelling stock specifically for students, as what little was available was conceived when a "foreign" student was just a few boarders from rural SA. When the international students came in they were left to fend for themselves on the private housing market, either in cheap units or share housing in larger dwellings. So basically, this "boom" isn't really a boom as such, but it's a shift of the market from general dwellings to student specific offerings. These student buildings should be approached from the perspective of carving out a slice of the 35,000 students, with a saturation or over supply of the market more likely to be felt on the fringes of the general housing stock, not in the student dwellings stock. We won't be hitting saturation for a while until the number of student dwellings approaches that 35,000 number.

For those 35,000 students, these offerings are the best value proposition given the price, location and also the culture of many of the countries they come from. They'll do quite fine in the market IMO. Students don't want a house and garden, they want somewhere to crash and plug in their laptop, and a management company that knows how to file its paperwork so they don't have visa issues.

If you look to a place like Prague which isn't a notable 'international' destination for students (because most courses aren't in English), but has a fairly strong influx of EU students, you'd be surprised seeing how many towers can be built catering for a comparatively small market. I lived in one which had 10 high rises in the one complex, and another with a couple of 20 storey+ buildings with students jammed in like sardines. This was just catering for students from places like Turkey, Finland, France etc, not the heavy weight markets we're active in like India, China and Japan.

[citywatcher]

I think apartments in the suburbs is the go for non students
One or two agents I've talked to lean that way too
Better standard apartments too
Students in the city cheaper and smaller as you say which to me does raise the question of these apartments long term

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[HiTouch]

It looks good in the render but developers have a habit of adding a "glow" to their render which could be deceiving.

[shiftaling]

Seems like my original thoughts on this were wrong in every respect - the street level actually looks really good (not at all a grim student accommodation lobby like I was assuming it would be, rather what appears to be a cafe) and the building is in fact highly prominent!

[Pikey]

Where did you find the renders arki? Is there any other information?

IMO it's a 50/50 based on these images. Could be nice, could be bad reimagining of Wakefield House.

This, Arki, if you could share where you found the renders it would be appreciated.

Cheers

[rev]

While looking for the source of the renders, I've found that this proposal was first submitted to council back in February.

[Champs84]

Can't help but think what happens to these buildings when the student boom dies down

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Can't see any real reason that would ever happen unless the desirability of our world class universities suddenly tumble for some reason. Adelaide will always be cheaper than the eastern states but with equal if not better higher education options. I say kudos to whoever had the nous to target a more sustainable 'boom' economy than mining.

[floplo]

Can't see any real reason that would ever happen unless the desirability of our world class universities suddenly tumble for some reason. Adelaide will always be cheaper than the eastern states but with equal if not better higher education options. I say kudos to whoever had the nous to target a more sustainable 'boom' economy than mining.

Actually, the nightmare scenarios are a dollar appreciation (so suddenly the price of Australia goes up significantly) or China making it harder to leave. Australian unis are depending primarily on Chinese students, so anything that affects that can bring the 'boom' down very fast...


Also these buildings are actually fairly expensive for student housing (tiny one bedrooms are actually in the same price range as much larger one bedrooms in regular apartment buildings, though there is more included in terms of utilities, etc), so what will happen is a free-for-all competition at the upper price end of student housing, pushing prices down there (fighting over a particular segment of the student population) while the current cheaper alternatives will actually not suffer much.

[Ho Really]

Can't help but think what happens to these buildings when the student boom dies down

citywatcher, if you are really paranoid about it contact Hines and tell them to design this building with the option of removable walls. Or to design the interior so that it can be easily transformed into a hotel (should things in future turn bad). It is possible they already have this in mind.

Affordable and or homeless housing.

I know you have your heart in the right place but it's not a good idea. The homeless - those living on the streets - should be housed elsewhere, in different facilities. As for affordable homes, that may be a better suggestion. It's up to Hines.

Cheers

[citywatcher]

Not paranoid about it
Doesn't really bother me
Just making an observation
I do wish however the people delivering food to these apartments on scooters and bikes didn't ride and park all over the road and footpaths

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[Nort]

Not paranoid about it
Doesn't really bother me
Just making an observation
I do wish however the people delivering food to these apartments on scooters and bikes didn't ride and park all over the road and footpaths

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If not the road or footpath where exactly should people go?

[citywatcher]

Footpath is not the place to ride scooters nor is it legal to ride them across the road and park them in illegal places

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[Splashmo]

I'm not a fan. Seems like there's barely any glass and windows - looks like a giant box with a few airholes randomly poked in.

Hopefully it's better in real life if it goes ahead.

[AdelaideGold]

https://www.afr.com/real-estate/hines-t ... 913-h15bbm