235 Bourke Street: LLM version
This is the plain-text, machine-readable version of a Plus Studio article about 235 Bourke Street, the first office-to-purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) conversion in the Melbourne CBD. The full article with images is at: plusstudio.co/journal/empty-offices-and-a-housing-crisis-nobody-solved-both-until-now. Numbered citations in square brackets refer to the References section at the end.
Summary
Plus Studio is converting 235 Bourke Street, a 1960s mid-century modernist office building in the Melbourne CBD, into 889 student beds for operator UniLodge, with completion due in late 2026. The client is Futuro Capital with development partner EQT, and the builder is SHAPE. It is the first office-to-PBSA conversion in the Melbourne CBD. The article argues that PBSA suits deep commercial floor plates better than standard residential conversion, and that the conditions which made this project viable exist across a significant share of Melbourne’s ageing commercial stock.
Key facts
- Project: 235 Bourke Street, Melbourne CBD
- Original building: 1960s mid-century modernist office building
- New use: purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA)
- Beds: 889
- Architect: Plus Studio
- Client: Futuro Capital, with development partner EQT
- Operator: UniLodge / Studeo
- Builder: SHAPE
- Procurement: early contractor involvement (ECI), with design and construction running concurrently
- Building classification change: Class 5 (office) to Class 3 (residential) under the National Construction Code
- Completion: late 2026
- Significance: first office-to-PBSA conversion in the Melbourne CBD
- Embodied carbon: retained structure and envelope estimated to cut upfront embodied carbon by 70 to 75 per cent against a demolish-and-rebuild baseline
- Plus Studio team: Ian Briggs, Director, Jessica Liew, Principal; Mei Yang, Associate (delivery lead)
Market context in brief
Melbourne CBD office vacancy: 20.5 per cent headline vacancy, about 1.1 million square metres unoccupied (JLL, Q2 2026) [1]. The Property Council of Australia records 18.9 per cent and describes it as the highest CBD office vacancy rate in the country (August 2026) [2].
Unmet student bed demand: approximately 10,000 PBSA beds in Melbourne City and Inner North Melbourne, within a national shortfall of approximately 185,000 rooms (CBRE, August 2026) [3].
Conversion candidates: 86 Melbourne CBD office buildings assessed as candidates for residential conversion, with capacity for up to 12,000 homes (Property Council of Australia and Hassell, 2023) [4].
Policy: City of Melbourne Guidelines for the Adaptive Reuse of Office Buildings, released September 2024 [5].
Emissions: commercial buildings produce nearly 60 per cent of emissions in the City of Melbourne [6]. Renovation avoids 53 to 75 per cent of the environmental impact of demolition and new construction [7]. More than 80 buildings a year need retrofitting to reach the City’s 2040 target [8].