SA Affordable Housing January / February 2017 // Issue: 62 | Page 24

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Student housing is about more than just providing beds – it’s about the experience. Image: Respublica

BUILDING AFFORDABLY
Building affordably is very difficult, McMurray admits.
“There is a certain cost to building. Students want more
than just a bed, they want the full experience. We have to
charge a minimum to cover it. We can do it at the
government grant rate but it’s difficult.” The National
Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) should be realistic
about what market-related rental actually is, says
McMurray. They haven’t increased rentals for three years.
But cost has escalated, especially utilities. It’s still about
30% below market. If they built their own facilities, they
would do so at a higher cost than the private sector. “They
need to benchmark realistic rates so students can find a
place to live that’s not sub-standard,” says McMurray
A way to get around this, is to blend the offerings, so
there are more expensive options subsidising the more
basic options like shared rooms and so on.

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JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2017

AFFORDABLE
SA HOUSING

“There is only so much you can do in terms of building
materials to bring costs down,” says McMurray. “Your rand
per square meter to build is very difficult. A lot of these
new technologies, which are far more energy efficient,
come at a cost. How do you match that with bringing in an
affordable rate?”
There is a correlation between what students expect
and want versus what they need. The increasing
expectations result in higher rates. “There is a mismatch
between what is affordable and what can be provided,”
says McMurray.
When STAG African evolved to specialise in student
accommodation, it conducted extensive research on what
universities could afford to pay for each new student bed.
From that number, they worked backwards, seeking
innovative building technologies and designs that could
deliver on it.