Advertising Accommodation

Thank you for your interest in offering accommodation to University of Sydney students.

You can use the the Accommodation Database to list your accommodation for free.

Register online and follow the prompts to create your listing. If you don't have web access, you can telephone us on (02) 8627 8442 and an Accommodation Officer will list your offer.

About the Accommodation Database

Types of Accommodation Listed
Our Standards and Expectations
How to List your Accommodation
Rent, Bond and Tenancy Matters
Your Privacy
Screening Students
Our Disclaimer
Frequently Asked Questions
Warning - Accommodation Scams

Read our Terms and Conditions for details of our expectations regarding your use of the Accommodation Database. You will be required to agree to these to offer accommodation through the Accommodation Database.

Visit our Tenancy Resources section for information about your rights and responsibilities under current legislation.

Types of Accommodation

We list:

Shared accommodation
Full-board or homestay accommodation
Vacant rental properties
Vacancies in on-campus colleges and residences and off-campus student hostels

Download the Definitions of Tenancy Terms sheet for full descriptions of each type.
If you unsure whether your accommodation is suitable, please contact us.

Back to Top

Our Standards and Expectations

We do not inspect accommodation listed on the database, however we ask our accommodation providers to agree to standards outlined in our Terms and Conditions.

We expect that the information in each accommodation listing:

is up to date and accurate.
accords with anti-discrimination legislation

We will not list accommodation we considers unsuitable. For example, we will not list rooms with multiple occupants unless it is clearly stated in the listing, and we will not list as bedrooms, rooms that are:

living rooms, regardless of whether they are partitioned
storage rooms
garages
without windows
any other spaces in a property other than a bedroom

How to List your Accommodation

Register online and follow the prompts to create your listing, or
Telephone us on (02) 8627 8442 and an Accommodation Officer will list your offer for you.
Read our Guide if you need help with creating and managing your accommodation listing/s.
As part of the registration process you will be asked to agree to our Terms and Conditions. Please read these carefully to ensure your listing complies with our standards.
We do not inspect your property and rely on you to provide accurate information so that you attract suitable applicants.

Managing your listing:

An Accommodation Officer will review your listing before it is published for students to view.
If accepted, your offer of accommodation will be advertised on our Accommodation Database and continue for 4 weeks from the available date.
To ensure the information we offer to our students is up to date and accurate, please login to update your listing if any details change.
If you have not filled the accommodation within four weeks of it becoming available, please login to update your listing so that it remains online for a further 4 weeks. You will receive an email to remind you your listing is due to expire.
Once you have found a suitable tenant or housemate, please login to deactivate your listing. Your listing remains inactive in the database until you wish to list again.
You will receive emails to assist you to manage your listing/s. Alternatively we can post you advice.

What happens next:

The information you have provided is made available only to Sydney University students, who view your listing/s online via the University of Sydney Intranet, a secure internal network, or by visiting the Accommodation Information Service office in person.
If a student contacts you, it is up to you to decide whether you would like to offer the student an appointment to meet you and see the accommodation. When contact is made, you may wish to ask the student a few questions about themselves. They may have further questions for you, and may wish to confirm the details of your offer, before committing to view the accommodation.

Rent, Bond and Tenancy Matters

It is up to you to decide the amount of rent or board you will charge. You can research rental prices in your area at www.domain.com.au or www.realestate.com.au.
Many people offer accommodation at cheaper rates to assists students on low-budgets, however, this is not expected of you.
If you ask for a rental bond, in most circumstances you are required, by law, to lodge the money with NSW Fair Trading. Please read our information about managing rental bonds.
For information about your legal rights and responsibilities as a provider of accommodation, please read the information on our Tenancy Resources page.

Your Privacy

Only University of Sydney students with a personal security code can access the Accommodation Database online. Student ID is also requested if students visit our office.

Your full name, full address, phone number/s and email address (if you have one), are recorded in our office records, as is the full address of the accommodation being offered. This is a requirement of listing your offer.

To protect your privacy, students are not able to view your surname or your address (if different to the address of the accommodation being offered).

Students are provided with the street name and suburb, but not the street number of the accommodation being offered. You can provide the full address to students if you choose to offer them a viewing of the accommodation.

Initial contact from students will be by telephone. You can also choose to advertise your email address as a point of contact.

Back to Top

Screening students

We do not screen students. It is up to you to ask questions and decide if you want the student to view the property.

It is useful to have questions to ask the students when you speak with them over the phone so you can determine if they might be suitable. Before you invite them to inspect the accommodation, speak to them about what you are offering so they know what to expect.

Please read our Terms and Conditions for information about our expectations with regard to tenancy arrangements. You and the student to will need to agree to the tenancy arrangements you wish to put in place. Please ensure you know your rights and responsibilities.

You can ask for references from students, but many are moving away from home for the first time and don’t have a rental history. International students may not have English language referees or contacts.

Back to Top

Our Disclaimer

We reserve the right, in our absolute discretion, to decline, or remove your offer of accommodation from our Database at any time. We are under no obligation to disclose our reasons why.

Back to Top

Frequently Asked Questions for Advertisers

If your question is not answered below, please contact us.

Questions:
What do students want?
What’s the most popular type of accommodation?
Do students want to share bedrooms?
What can students afford to pay?
Do I need to furnish the accommodation?
Who do students want to share with?
What’s the busiest time of year?
Does the Accommodation Service inspect my property?
Do you find the "right" student for me?

What do students want?
Accommodation that is:

Clean and secure
Affordable
Close to their campus, or a short distance by public transport. Click here for campus locations.

Share accommodation is the cheapest and most popular option for students.
Rental properties are popular with students wanting to live alone or with friends.
Full board or homestay is used mostly by International students because meals are provided and assistance is sometimes given with English language skills.
Visiting students often need cheap, temporary accommodation close to campus, for short periods of time (up to a couple of months).

Back to Top of FAQ's

Do students want to share bedrooms?
No. As young adults, most university students want a bedroom to themselves. Sometimes student who are couples, close friends or siblings will be interested in sharing a bedroom, usually to reduce costs.

Back to Top of FAQ's

What can students afford to pay?
Students' circumstances vary. But most students are on a low budget and prefer relatively inexpensive accommodation.
Back to Top of FAQ's

Do I need to furnish the accommodation?
There is a demand for both furnished and unfurnished accommodation. International and interstate students prefer furnished accommodation. However, many local students want unfurnished accommodation.
Back to Top of FAQ's

Who do students want to share with?
Students generally want to live with other students and young people. However, there are many students happy to share with mature people in established homes, particularly mature-age and postgraduate students. Some international students want to share with people from the same cultural background, while other international students want to live with people who are happy to provide opportunities for them to improve their spoken English.
Back to Top of FAQ's

What’s the busiest time of year?
Most students are looking in January, February and March. July is also busy for students starting in Semester 2. A smaller number of students look throughout the year.
Back to Top of FAQ's

Does the Accommodation Service inspect my property?
We do not inspect your property, and rely on the information you supply to us for accuracy. Please see our Disclaimer.
Back to Top of FAQ's

Do you find the "right" student for me?
We do not place students in accommodation. Students will contact you via phone to find out about the property. You can then ask questions, or screen, the students before deciding whether you want them to view the property.
Back to Top of FAQ's

Back to Top

Warning - Accommodation Scams

Accommodation scams are running on many accommodation search websites.

About the most recently reported Scam:
The name “Jenny Morris” is associated with a recent scam which targets people offering accommodation. In this case the fraudster, pretending to be an international student, expresses interest in an offer of accommodation. Contact is by sms or email. The fraudster arranges to pay a deposit (sometimes using a cheque, which is later dishonoured, or using a stolen credit card), then claims to have overpaid the amount originally agreed and asks the accommodation provider to transfer the overpayment back, usually through Western Union. Please do not transfer any money to any potential ‘tenant’.

The University has systems in place to ensure the security of our Accommodation database. To further protect yourself our IT security team strongly advise you ensure that your anti-virus program is updated to the latest version, and that you have enabled SPAM filtering for your email.

For more information about current scams and how to avoid them, visit:

The University of Sydney - Current students