Skyscrapers dedicated to student accommodation, with hundreds of studio apartments as small as 12.1 square metres, are being planned and built in Melbourne.

In a rarity for a city teeming with units designed for investors, there are advanced plans for at least five new high-rise towers in the CBD catering to university students.

UK-based Scape Student Living is leading the charge, with a proposal for Melbourne’s largest and tallest student housing project.

Its three proposed skyscrapers opposite RMIT University on Swanston Street could house almost 1600 students.

An example of a Scape Student Housing studio room. Photo: Supplied.

They will also have some of the smallest dwellings in the city. All the rooms will be less than 30 square metres and some less than 15 square metres – about the size of a car park space.

The builder says that after six years of development it has designed rooms that fit storage space, a kitchen with cooker, sink and fridge, at least a double bed, and a “pod bathroom” with a toilet, shower and space for toiletries.

Many of these features are built in. “If you tipped our rooms upside down the only thing that would fall out is the bed and the chair,” Scape director Craig Carracher said.

Mr Carracher said the studio rooms were typically larger than you would find in a share house or other student accommodation.

Within the proposed towers there are also larger apartments, or clusters, where four or six studio bedrooms back onto a shared kitchen and lounge room. It is envisaged these dwellings will be ideal for students working together in collaborative courses or international students finding it difficult living away from home.

Scape already has approval for a 43-storey skyscraper at 393 Swanston Street, while its proposal to build two towers of 42 storeys and 56 storeys on two adjoining blocks facing La Trobe and Little La Trobe streets are before the Planning Minister.

It is possible these two projects, due to be completed by mid-2018 and early-2019, could be delayed because the site is close to the planned Melbourne Metro Rail.

Education is Victoria’s biggest export, but there is a lack of affordable accommodation for students in Melbourne.

Homes built specifically for university students are still limited. About 42,500 students live in central Melbourne, but only 9108, or 21 per cent, live in dwellings specifically designed for students.

Many students end up in the expensive private rental market, where the shortage of affordable housing has helped fuel illegal rooming house operations, where students pay more than $100 a week to sleep on the floor of living rooms.

Another example of a Scape Student Housing studio room. The door on the right leads to a bathroom. Photo: Supplied.

It will cost about $400 a week for students to live in one of the serviced Scape towers.

RMIT professor Tony Dalton said apartments in this price bracket would probably cater to relatively well-off students.

“You still have very large numbers of international students really struggling,” he said. “That lack of affordability plays out with people crowding into apartments and other houses and sharing in quite larger numbers.”

Scape will manage the apartment towers once they are developed. Mr Carracher said because the company did not outsource any of their major services, such as cleaning and concierge, all of the staff on the premises would be able to keep an eye out for students who were struggling.

A shared study space in a Scape Student Housing property. Photo: Supplied.

The towers will have large communal study areas and other shared facilities such as laundries, food outlets and gyms. Social activities such as movie nights, cooking classes and barbecues will be organised and there will be a business space likely to house start-ups, technology companies and services for the students, such as a bank branch.

To rent one of the rooms, students must be able to prove they are enrolled in tertiary education. In the case of international students, they must have a valid student visa and be enrolled at university or with another education course that satisfies visa requirements.