It will be luxurious, close to major universities, promising a great deal of communal spaces for study and gatherings but the self-contained rooms will be about the size of a carpark lot.

Three proposed skyscrapers opposite RMIT University in Melbourne city could house up to 1600 students, but these students could be living in spaces as small as 12 square metres, according to a recent report on Domain.com.au.

With more students expected to flood into Australia in the coming years, developers have started to set their sights on development sites close to the major universities in Melbourne. According to the Australian Financial Review (AFR), the student housing market is worth about $20 billion.

There are advanced plans for at least five new high-rise towers in the Melbourne CBD catering to university students. London based Scape Student Living is leading the charge, with a proposal for Melbourne’s largest and tallest student housing project. Scape has reportedly paid $560 million for several prime sites in Melbourne and Brisbane.

Scape told Domain that after six years of development it has designed rooms that fit storage space, a kitchen with cooker, sink and fridge, at least a double bed, and a “pod bathroom” with a toilet, shower and space for toiletries.

Join us at this World Summit on Uncontrolled Migration:  8-9 March 2016, Adelaide, South Australia.

Migration Alliance has negotiated an exclusive 20% reduction on the cost of this Summit for its members.   Membership to Migration Alliance is free.

The 90% plunge in significant investor visa applications has prompted calls to Trade Minister Andrew Robb to review the program or risk losing an estimated $5 billion to $7b investments a year.

Last year’s changes to the SIV program required investors under the SIV program to put funds into venture capital and technology. This change has led to a dramatic fall in the SIV applications from 128 a month to between just eight and 12 a month this financial year, according to a report in The Australian.

West Australian Liberal backbencher Ian Goodenough has told parliament that the decision to exclude property development and established companies from the program “has proved problematic in practice”.

“This is very serious, and as a nation we could be forgoing up to $7.2bn in investment through the business migration program each year due to the recent changes in the program,” Mr Goodenough said.

James Clarke from the Australian China Business Council of West Australia told The Australian that there were concerns that the crash in applications from Chinese investors since July 1 last year meant Australia was “forfeiting more than $5bn per year to competitor markets such as Europe and the UK”.

Obtain SIV visa programme updates and insights at the 'Migration Conference 2016' delivered by two SIV experts: David Chin, Basis Point & Stacey Martin, NAB Private Wealth

Friday 26^th February 10:15am – 10:45am as part of the $220 10CPD one-day Migration Conference 2016 in Sydney.

The Significant Investor Visa (SIV) migration program was launched in November, 2012.

Migration Agents are travelling internationally to win SIV business in Asia.  One example is a recent trip to Hong Kong for the Asian Financial Forum by RMA delegates of Think Global's 'Invest in Australia' Mission.

Australian permanent residency in nine months was promised to unsuspecting foreigners who seemed to have readily fallen for the scammers advertisement which promoted a training program as "The Quick and Easy Way to get PR".

A Melbourne man and his company that duped almost a hundred people of some $800,000 in the scam, are now expected to be ordered to refund the money to their former clients and pay penalties in excess of $1 million dollars, according to a report on Channel 7 News.

The court heard that between 2012 and 2013, Radovan Laski and his company Clinica International operated an elaborate scheme promising to provide clients with Certificate III cleaning training that would lead to a job in regional Australia and qualify them for a permanent residence visa.