In just four years, the number of Australian families needed to house the international students has soared 400 per cent, according to figures from the NSW Department of Education.

Paying an average of $300 a week to live with an Australian family in NSW is clearly no obstacle even after forking out a similar amount each week to study at one of NSW’s 150 state public school fees that accept overseas students. Wealthy Chinese parents are apparently driving the demand for homestay accommodation for young children in especially NSW.

“Thousands of teenagers from Asian countries are increasingly being sent to NSW to finish their studies at the state's public high schools,” notes a report in The Sydney Morning Herald today.

The latest figures from the department revealed a 25 per cent increase in new, full fee-paying international students in just 12 months. About a third of these students are in homestay arrangements.

According to the report, in 2010, only 276 families were required to host international students, but in 2014, 1129 families were needed and a tender process to find more families to cater for the expected influx later this year has just closed.

Enrolment figures show there are 3386 international students studying in public schools this year, but that figure is expected to rise because many students do not start until mid-year, in line with the northern hemisphere's school year.

Chinese students used to account for about 50 per cent of international students in NSW, but that has risen to more than 60 per cent, according to the department.

One of the reasons for the rise in enrolments of Chinese high school students is a new visa system. In 2014, visa rules were relaxed to allow international teenagers to come to Australia on a student visa as early as Year 7.

Another often stated reason is the ‘go early strategy’ of the Chinese with parents of the wealthy middle-class wanting their children to get a good grip of the English language in their early years in the hope that it will ultimately lead to a good university education in Australia.