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By Marcel Lee Pereira
WITH hostels at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) bursting at the seams, more students are turning to nearby HDB estates such as Clementi and Jurong West for accommodation.
The hostel situation
NUS
- 6,700 hostel places
- Assured housing for international undergrads in first two years
- 5,175 third- and fourth-year undergrads applied for coming academic year
(2008/09), 10 per cent more than last year
- Rise in demand driven by higher rents outside
- 1,992 unsuccessful applicants in first phase of hostel allocation in April
- Refurbished block of 100 HDB flats leased in Boon Lay for an additional 396 places
- Nearly 80 per cent of applicants,
on average, successful in getting a place
- The University Town, ready by 2010, will provide eight residential colleges and two
graduate residences for 6,000 local and international students
NTU
- 16 halls of residence for 9226 undergrads; graduate hall for additional 480 students
- Co-curricular activity (CCA) cut-off point for senior students is 15 for both males
and females this year
- Last year, cut-off points were 14 and 13 for males and females respectively |
This is indirectly driving up rents there, say some property agents. The students are mostly from China, Malaysia, India and Indonesia.
HSR Property Group's executive director Eric Cheng said that rising flat rents have driven them to take up cheaper units in outlying areas.
He said: "They rent flats further away from MRT stations as they know they are getting a better rate."
This has affected the rental market, with flat owners in outlying areas charging a few hundred dollars more for larger groups of students, he added.
Said Mr Cheng: "Flat-owners look at the number of people staying. If there are six students, they'll ask for a higher amount."
This has, subsequently, led to flat-owners in better locations asking for as much as 30 per cent more, he added.
Several property agents who spoke to my paper also said they were now seeing between 10 and 30 per cent more students seeking flats near campuses as compared to last year.
A check on the Housing & Development Board's website showed that the median subletting rent for five-room flats in Clementi, for example, was $1,900 in the first quarter of this year, up from $1,800 in the third quarter of last year.
The median rent shows that half of the units were rented above that price and half below.
Universities, at the same time, have pointed to rising rents which have triggered a higher number of applications
for hostels this year (see box).
Fourth-year NUS civil engineering student Aneeqa Mannan moved out of Prince George's Park Residences last
week because she had not met the required co-curricular activity points to stay another semester.
The 23-year-old Pakistani and a friend have moved into a room in a Bukit Batok flat, paying $750 a month for it. It takes her 30 to 40 minutes to get to school from there.
She found it only after a month of searching and after viewing nearly 10 places.
She added: "At times, I've regretted taking more time to think about a place, so when the agent showed me this one and I liked it, I signed the contract then and there."
Mr Ady Goh, 48, a property agent of close to 30 years, said that it is difficult to find willing landlords. "Some prefer families. They think students will not maintain the flat as well," he added.
Still, Mr Goh said he handles 30 per cent more students as compared to last year. Most of them are from Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
HSR's Mr Cheng said he expects the rental market to remain strong in the next two years, with rents increasing another 4 to 5 per cent.
He added: "I don't think the situation will cool off because it has not reached a point where supply is more than demand."
For more my paper stories, click here.
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