Auckland is getting $716m of new student accommodation in three big towers. Who’s doing this, why the boom and will it be enough to meet growing demand?
When the pandemic hit, international students fled Auckland. Rooms were empty. The outlook seemed grim.
Now, demand for digs has risen to the point where two developers are building or have finished three new towers.
And those involved say it’s not just domestic students but those from overseas - Asia, Latin America, the United States and Canada - who will fill the new blocks.
Cedar Pacific and Precinct Properties have $716m of new student tower plans between them.
Precinct has begun building $410m of towers: one in Parnell, the other in the CBD.
Cedar Pacific is finishing a new $225m tower which gets its first residents next year, also in the CBD.
Consultants tell of more plans and further expansion in the sector with at least two more schemes well advanced.
Simon Neale, University of Auckland chief property officer, says it has about 4500 units or beds in a number of city buildings near the city campus.
But he acknowledged the need for more.
“There is strong demand and it is mixed, coming from both home and overseas students.”
Experts think Auckland Uni could easily double its stock and still not meet full current demand.
Cedar Pacific is an unlisted funds management company which owns and operates Australasian student accommodation for institutional investors.
Bernie Armstrong, based in Brisbane, is the CEO and went to Chicago business school with David McConnell, hence a connection between those businesses.
In Auckland, Cedar Pacific developed, owns, owned or is developing:
In Christchurch, Cedar Pacific owns:
Two years ago, the company sold Symonds St, Whitaker Pl, Wakefield St and Anzac Ave properties but kept all three Christchurch properties.
“Cedar Pacific has developed and owned more than 10,000 student accommodation beds across NZ and Australia but we sold out of our first fund in 2023,” Armstrong said.
“This fund contained four assets in Auckland. These continue to be operated by UniLodge but we now only own Lorne Street and the assets in Christchurch.”
UniLodge Auckland Central on Lorne St is a $225m investment for the business, he said.
“This is the largest in New Zealand so far. We like to work directly with universities - AUT University as well as the University of Auckland. We’d like to invest more in New Zealand.”
Further expansion in Christchurch is planned, he said.
Spectacular gym facilities, cinema rooms, communal study rooms, games rooms and other amenities are enjoyed by students, Armstrong said.
Students don’t always use the areas in ways those designing or owning the buildings expect.
One group of medical students watched lectures in a cinema room in UniLodge Kensington in Sydney: “Students use these spaces sometimes in ways you imagine, sometimes in ways we didn’t imagine. The most important thing for us is creating communities”.
Good accommodation results in fewer drop-outs.
UniLodge Auckland Central, built by Icon, would probably fill with more second and third-year students who want to leave university halls of residence, he thinks.
“As they get older, they want to have their own place and get more control over their own lives,” Armstrong said.
Lorne St would be available to AUT as well as Auckland Uni students.
Asked if Cedar Pacific would sell UniLodge Auckland Central, Armstrong said: “Eventually, yes. Timing would be dictated by the governing structure of the investment fund that owns that”.
Ashton Mitchell architect Cliff Paul, who designed many new student accommodation buildings, said bean bags as cinema seating in new buildings don’t work.
Students often move those back to their rooms.
CEO Scott Pritchard is showing faith in the student sector by voting with his feet.
Precinct is developing two student towers as part of a wider $3.7b push into residential.
Both were designed by Ashton Mitchell’s Cliff Paul.
Precinct aims to have the Queen St tower finished for the start of the 2029 academic year.
Icon’s Dan Bosher said that business had been working on the Queen St project since the second quarter of last year.
“It’s been a big journey to get there in difficult market conditions. We’ve signed the contract and take possession of the site on November 3. It’s great to have positive news.
“Each of the 638 units will have its own bathroom and own kitchen so it’s world-standard student accommodation, a premium offering.”
Icon also built UniLodge Auckland Central, Bosher said.
That is for Cedar Pacific, with UniLodge to be the operator, Bosher said. Like Precinct’s Queen St tower, the Lorne St block was designed by Ashton Mitchell.
The Parnell building is being developed as the next stage of Carlaw Park Student Village and Precinct has partnered with Auckland University.
Neale said the project would be delivered through a funding and development model similar to that used for Stuart McCutcheon House, with no construction capital committed by the university.
It is underpinned by a long-term lease agreement with Precinct, and the university will contribute to the fit-out, furnishings and equipment, with support from Precinct.
Private developer Greg Reidy of Reidy & Co, with Kim Barrett’s Haydn & Rollet, are a third student accommodation sector force.
Carlaw Park displays this collaboration: stages one and two have 770 beds in 220 units, Greg Reidy said.
The two also developed what is now called Stuart McCutcheon House: the $250 million 203-unit 10-level block with 753 beds at the Stanley St/Nicholls Lane intersection.
All up, 416 apartments were developed, each with three to six bedrooms, resulting in 907 bedrooms in this block, Reidy said.
Both businesses are now involved in the Precinct scheme at 22 Stanley St.
“Following the successful completion of Stuart McCutcheon House in January 2023, which is next to 22 Stanley St, Reidy & Co, with joint venture partners Haydn & Rollett and architects Ashton Mitchell, conceptualised a new purpose-built student accommodation project,” Reidy & Co says.
Given its proximity to Stuart McCutcheon House, 22 Stanley presented an obvious opportunity, it said.
Through a long-term relationship with the property owner, Reidy & Co negotiated a conditional agreement to buy the site subject to due diligence.
Auckland Uni committed to a long-term lease and resource consent was won for the block two levels over the permitted height limit, Reidy & Co said.
“Reidy & Co played a key role in all aspects of the project up to the commencement of construction of the project in June 2025.”
In 2022, the newly-formed developer and investor Resident Properties sought publicity as a joint venture between Reidy and Barrett.
“We are on track to grow our portfolio of properties in prime locations across Auckland,” Reidy said of build-to-rent specialist Resident.
Barrett: “This is a way of bringing a long-term asset ownership approach into the residential sector. We try not to overshadow the new business with the two existing”.
Resident’s first block was a new Mt Eden apartment/hotel building, built by the two building businesses: The Ed.
The second venture was buying a Grey Lynn block by Ockham Residential: The Nix.
Resident Properties doesn’t show any advancements on four other areas which Reidy referred to as potentials in 2022: Upper Queen St, Newmarket, Grey Lynn and the North Shore.
“It’s just a simple case of building cost escalation: they went up significantly, haven’t come back, so we have to shelve those plans because it just wasn’t viable to build buildings in those areas. It was also questionable about what they would be valued at once completed.”
On student units, Reidy sees big demand and is not surprised about the three new towers.
“In cities all around the world, students want good accommodation near campus. But it takes years of planning and consenting,” Reidy said.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald‘s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.