Housing Information

Introduction and Methodology

This section deals with housing for the Melbourne Project Center. The two major options evaluated were apartment housing and university housing. This section discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each option and provides conclusions on what housing should be found.

To find housing in each of these categories we contacted a realtor and universities with campuses in Melbourne. The universities contacted were the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Victoria University of Technology (VUT), and Melbourne University.

Housing Requirements

Housing was one the main concerns that needed to be examined for the Melbourne Project Center to succeed. To limit the search there were several requirements that the prospective housing needed to meet:

• Housing for D term (March 15 - May 10 approximately 7 weeks)
• Located near public transportation
• All students housed in the same building or area
• House 15-20 male and female students
• House one or two faculty and their families
• Furnished
• Kitchen facilities
• Ability to secure housing on contract when faculty arrives in June
• Utilities included in rent preferable
• University Based Housing

After contacting Melbourne University, RMIT, and Victoria University of Technology, we found that both RMIT and VUT do not have on campus housing. In order to provide housing for its students the universities use hostels, hotels, and VUT has a student village.

The advantages of going through the universities for housing is that the students will most likely be placed near Australian students. Being able to talk to Australian students would help WPI students adjust to Australia and make friends.

Disadvantages to university based housing is that it is not much different than apartment based housing. The students placed in hostels have nearly the same facilities of a furnished apartment but hostels are usually more expensive per student than the apartment based housing. In addition, many of the hostels that the universities use have a minimum stay of a semester or academic year. Since the IQP lasts only 7 weeks, the students would not qualify for the minimum stay.

Apartment Based Housing

One of the advantages of apartment housing is the cost. The apartment that the bootstrap team rented is $450 per month. The $450 per month is high since the apartment we rented is in the center of the city. Finding housing outside the city center could drop the price by $100 a month. Another advantage of apartment housing is the flexibility. Since there are many apartments in Melbourne, they can be found for the correct number of students and in any area of the city.

A disadvantage of apartment housing is that most apartments require a security deposit of one months rent, although the students will receive their housing deposit if the apartment is still in good condition. It is a burden that the student needs to provide this money in advance.

Bootstrap Team Housing

The apartment we rented was on the eighth floor of Park Tower on Spring Street in Melbourne. The place suited all of our needs with two bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a kitchen, living room, dining room, and a beautiful view of the city from both the front and back of the apartment. We had all of our utilities paid for and our telephone and internet service had been set up by us. Our address and other information are below.

Mailing address:
201 Spring Street
Unit 5, 8th Floor
Melbourne 3000
Victoria, Australia

Conclusion

After considering both university and apartment housing, we concluded that apartment housing is the best option.

The real estate agent that we contacted said he was confident he could find housing to meet our requirements. In addition, since cost is important, the real estate agent said he could find housing outside the city at a price $100 less then the $450 per month (US$300) that we pay. All our requirements would be met, a contract can be secured, and it will be cheaper than the hostels for each student.