Annual Review - Campus Living Villages

2 0 Campus Living Villages
Operational highlights
Annual Review 09/ 10 2 1
Australia
Head office
Sydney, Australia
Date of entry into market
2003—Sydney University Village
9
3
23
%
Number of owned
properties
Number of managed
properties
% of portfolio by
number of owned
and managed beds
Campus Living Villages’ Australian
operations (CLV AU) have continued
to perform well despite the difficult
financial climate, surpassing
impressive occupancy figures from
the 08/09 financial year and further
expanding their operations.
The year was marked by record
occupancy across the Australian
portfolio, the successful rollout of
the Live, Learn, Grow residential
life program, increased efficiencies
across the business and improved
relationships with partner institutions.
1,651 beds were added
to the owned portfolio through a
combination of new developments and
acquisitions, as well as an additional
149 beds under management.
UNSW Village
The University of New South Wales
CLV AU’s flagship development,
UNSW Village, was opened on time and on
budget in January 2010. Accommodation at
the Village is in high demand, with occupancy
reaching 100% before the start of the 2010
academic year.
The Village was officially opened by
UNSW Chancellor David Gonski, AC, President
and Vice-Chancellor Professor Frederick G
Hilmer, AO, and CLFM Chairman Professor
John Niland, AC, at a successful event
organised in partnership with UNSW.
UNSW Village offers students a
choice of one to eight bedroom apartments.
Facilities are designed to maximise student
interaction and academic achievement
with a café, convenience store, theatre, study
space, outdoor courtyards and a three-level
student lounge.
Environmentally sustainable design
initiatives include the use of precast concrete
for superior thermal performance, solar hot
water, generous levels of natural light and
cross ventilation to bedrooms and living areas.
UNSW Village was one of the first
CLV sites to explore technologies such as
virtual tours, 3D floorplans and social media
campaigns, offering potential residents a taste
of village life before the property had even
been built. Now, online social networks are
used to provide an interactive communication
channel through which residents can meet new
people and share information.
*Michael Heffernan,
previously
CFO Australia,
was appointed
CEO Australia
from 1 July 2010.
australia
Michael Heffernan
CEO Australia*
Occupancy
In semester 1 2010, CLV AU
achieved record occupancy of 99.1%
across all properties by April 2010, even
with the addition of over 1,600 new beds
to the portfolio. This was an increase of
approximately three percentage points over
the previous year’s record.
Most notably, the 1,021-bed
UNSW Village development achieved 100%
occupancy less than two months after
practical completion.
Another highlight was achieving
100% occupancy at SCU Village in semester
1 2010, after taking it over with 102 empty
beds in August 2009. At the University
of Canberra, CLV’s 172 new beds (opened in
June 2009) filled by August, despite opening
in a traditionally hard-to-fill period.
Developments and partnerships
This year saw the opening of UNSW
Village, one of the largest complete student
accommodation builds in Australia. In June
2010, the architects working on the project
won a 2010 NSW Architecture Award under
the Residential Architecture — Multiple
Housing category. The Urban Development
Institute of Australia (NSW) also awarded
the project an award for Excellence
in Sustainability.
In addition, CLV acquired 468
existing beds at Southern Cross University’s
(SCU) Lismore and Coffs Harbour campuses
and entered its first partnership with a TAFE
body at the Northern Melbourne Institute
of TAFE (NMIT), with a management
contract for 149 beds. In July 2009, CLV AU
commenced building 357 new beds on Edith
Cowan University’s (ECU) Mount Lawley
campus, scheduled to open in January 2011.
Relationships
Relationships with educational
partners were strengthened by ongoing
quarterly Village Advisory Board meetings,
used as a forum to discuss strategy,
operations and ways of enhancing the
student experience. Formal board papers
were introduced for partners, with
enhancements to the agenda including
quarterly operations reports, incident logs,
risk registers and schedules for village
sinking funds.
Residential life
The Live, Learn, Grow residential
life program was rolled out across Australia in
2010, following a residential life conference
held in December 2009 in Sydney.
The program was presented to educational
partners at village advisory board meetings
and received an enthusiastic response.
To ensure village facilities
supported the new program, refurbishments
were undertaken at several properties,
including a swimming pool at UWS Village,
a café, student lounge and study space at
University of Canberra Village, a student
lounge at Kelvin Grove Student Village
and a communal kitchen at Griffith
University Village.
CLV AU invested in creating
resources for staff to support the
successful implementation of Live,
Learn, Grow. Manuals were developed
to communicate the goals, standards
and requirements of the program and
Residential Assistant (RA) training was
conducted at every site.
Support and security were
increased with the introduction of
professional Residential Life staff, evening
duty managers and extended reception
hours on evenings and weekends.
Surveys
To gain an understanding of
resident needs, CLV AU distributed a
bi-annual survey to students in April 2010.
Overall, villages received an impressive
response rate of 72%.
In comparison to surveys
undertaken in 2009, there was a marked
rise in student satisfaction, with overall
ratings of the village experience increasing
from 78% to 84%. Most topics, including
residential life, scored above the 2010
target of 75%.
Staffing
This financial year, the key staffing
focus was to increase efficiencies, empower
staff and clarify responsibilities.
A philosophy of ‘empowerment’
for Village Directors and General Managers
was implemented across the region.
This focused on ensuring managers were
appropriately resourced and empowered
and had clear accountabilities.
As a result, occupancy and resident
satisfaction increased and decision-making
was timely, responsive and relevant.
Cost savings and efficiencies
The new General Manager of
Risk and Facilities, Keiron Humbler, drove
a number of national tenders resulting
in considerable cost savings for areas such
as cleaning (AU $950,000 over five years),
waste management (AU $125,000
for one year) and fire equipment testing
(AU $280,000 over five years).
A change of insurance broker to one with
a portfolio in the higher education industry
resulted in an annual premium saving
of AU $180,000 for Australia and
New Zealand.
Summer stays
CLV AU’s summer group
accommodation product was brought in
line with the new branding in May 2010.
Previously marketed under the name
CLV Smart Stays, the program was
renamed Campus Summer Stays to
highlight its unique locations and access
to campus resources.
In line with the empowerment of
Village Directors and General Managers,
responsibility for summer stays marketing
was operationalised at a village level in
March 2010.