Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology offers 90 beds in student accommodation. Photo / File
Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology offers 90 beds in student accommodation. Photo / File
Tauranga property managers are calling for more housing after being rushed off their feet with applications for student accommodation before the start of the university year next week.
Tauranga Rentals Ltd manager Dan Lusby said the company was still getting "quite a few" applications for rentals every day, with manypeople registering their interest in a property so their details would stay in the system.
"More so in December and January ... [at present] we're averaging three or four a day."
"If anything comes along, we can then let them know," he said.
"It's been pretty hard for [students], there's not a lot around."
The applications were "from all over", he said, not just Tauranga, and while they got "foreign inquiries", he couldn't say if they were from people inside or outside of New Zealand.
Linda Burrows of Tauranga Realty said this time of year was her busiest.
"I have placed 47 students," she said.
"Both [New Zealanders] and international ... [with] a further 15 on the waitlist."
Applicants started contacting her in July, she said - and she was "fully pencilled in" by November, with another rush of applications in late December and January.
While "three or four" would fall off the list, the places were easily taken up by others on the waitlist, she said.
"A lot more accommodation is needed," Burrows said.
Head of facilities Malcolm Hardy said Toi Ohomai offered 90 student rooms in Tauranga and Rotorua.
Thirty-five of those rooms were spread over 11 houses in Tauranga and the remaining 55 were in Tangatarua Hall in Rotorua.
He expected 90 per cent of those rooms would be occupied in the first semester, he said.
Some rooms were set aside for international students, and they could find accommodation "through the [Toi Ohomai] website and agents", he said.
But "it's getting tougher every year," Hardy said.
"We ... do have some homestays that take in international students as well."
Toi Ohomai international students Aditya Dhungana, Arvin Rasaili, and Mukesh Yadav, all 21, said they struggled to find accommodation before arriving in New Zealand from Nepal as they weren't familiar enough with the city.
They were staying with friends or family while they looked for flats, they said, but were trying to find a house where they could stay together as they all studied the same course.
The students "didn't get a lot of help" from Toi Ohomai in finding accommodation, Rasaili said, and were left to find it themselves.
They "would have liked more help", he said.
With the University of Waikato's Mayfair Court student flats on Mayfair St in the Avenues now on the market, the pressure to find a flat could increase.
A Waikato University spokesperson said, however, the university lease on Mayfair Court "will continue if the building ownership changes".
The Mayfair Court apartments on Mayfair St, which the University of Waikato leases, are for sale. Photo / File
They also said the university will lease a 95-bed facility in Selwyn St in 2021.
"This facility is purpose-built for student accommodation and will be managed by the university," they said.
"If there is spare capacity, rooms will also be offered to Toi Ohomai students."
