Here it is again elpus, enough of the booming student baloney it is absolute tripe.
"Universities and other educators contacted by The Australian reported an increase in deferrals while forecasting a decline in lucrative international enrolments as prospective students struggle to finance overseas education.
The contraction of Australia's third-biggest export industry, education, has the potential to cost jobs within the sector and hurt the housing market.
As universities brace for the fall-off, there is growing concern it will trigger a slump in unit sales as the parents of overseas students stop buying apartments for their children.
Global Campus management chairman, and founder of the Unilodge group, Mark Skinner said the global financial crisis "would certainly be affecting the purchase of apartments for students as residential accommodation".
It has been common practice for the parents of international students to purchase apartments in Sydney and Melbourne, in particular, and Brisbane while their children study in those cities, Mr Skinner said.
While there was no evidence this early in the year that the slowdown was hurting the rental market, Housing Industry Association senior economist Harley Dale said a slump in the number of international students could cause rental growth to slow.
"Immigration has been playing a major role in demand for housing over the last few years and there has been a fairly large student component to that," Mr Dale said. "If proportionally more of those students are not coming to Australia, or not staying for as long, then that means there will be a little bit less demand on the stretched amount of housing stock."
Mr Dale said any slump in foreign student enrolments could further exacerbate the downturn in house and apartment prices. "Some foreign students, if they come from wealthy Asian families, for example, buy homes to live in while they are studying," Mr Dale said. "If we see a trend (of fewer international students) sustained over the next year or two, that could flow on to the sales market."
