In the context of rental crisis, can international students have an equal opportunity to compete with others?

Story background:

Education has always been one of Australia’s key exports, although international students contributed $25.5 billion to Australian education in the pandemic’s volatile 2022. In January 2023, the Chinese Ministry of Education claimed that it would no longer award degrees to remote students in order to maintain equity in education.

Therefore, moving to Sydney after the pandemic, international students are finding community and settling into life in a brandnew city. Sydney, the city with the highest cost of living in Australia, is in a situation where there is less housing and more people. According to data from Domain, Australia is experiencing the longest sustained rental price increase in its history, with Sydney’s median price hitting $600 across the board for the first time. In particular, the number of viewings near the campus rose by 106%, with the average rent for a two-bedroom flat costing over $1,050.

As a result, it is not uncommon for students to submit a dozen rental applications a day without receiving a response. The decision to accept a tenant depends on, references and making sure they can look after the place. And student status is naturally at a disadvantage to full-time workers. Young people still want to live in the city and have equal access to an apartment. This forces international students to choose between taking on high rents and a lower standard of living.

Story topic:

This news feature will focus on the dilemmas that the international student community encounters when renting and applying for accommodation in Sydney. Where financial pressures, scarce properties, uncertainty of student status and the need for quality of life are the main barriers to renting. To strike a balance, this news piece will show the particularities of the international student community in the context of renting through the experiences of international students, landlord standards and information from real estate agents to support them, and keep an eye on whether there is government and university support for the issue of renting.

Publication and Target audience:

Rental crisis in Sydney involves the international student community and can be considered from an economic and political perspective. This story has timeliness, proximity and impact and involves three parties: international student tenants, landlords and agents. Given the number of international students who have entered or will soon enter Australia as a result of the relaxation of policies, this news feature will reflect the rental dilemma. Therefore, I expect publication in the ABC news and the Sydney morning herald, both offshore and onshore students will be interested in anticipating the influx of international students.

Sources of information:

1. Data: Domain
2. Relevant policy: The age
3. Current rental situation:

• News.com.au
• The Sydney morning herald
• 7NEWS

4. Interviewee:

• Tenant- international student: Experience of not being able to find satisfactory accommodation
• Tenant- international student: Forced to move out of current apartment due to sharp increase in rent
• Landlord: Prefer full time workers as tenants
• Agents: current rental situation

Multimedia, hypertext and interactivity:

• I will use eye-catching photographs, such as capturing people in a crowded queue to view a property, to add an emotional element.
• Hyperlinks will be used to support the news content, providing relevant policy and economic information to help readers better understand. Data on rental market will also be presented in graphical form.
• To increase interactivity, I will use a number of tweets to transform static pages into dynamic and interactive content. The views of other groups on the Sydney rent crisis, not just the international student community.

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