National

THE federal and state governments are continuing to buy development sites and vacant properties that it can convert into public housing.

It has recently acquired two prominent properties in the seaside hamlet of Wonthaggi, about 132 kilometres south-east of Melbourne.

In the highest profile deal, the government outmuscled developers and operators for the former Golf Links Hotel, which is set to be redeveloped into a major rooming house.

At another site at 7 Mortimer Street, near the Wonthaggi town centre, a vacant block offering picturesque views over the Wonthaggi Golf Course and Bass Strait is also set to make way for a new commission flat complex.

AUSTRALIA's lucrative student accommodation sector is at risk, with cash strapped United States universities said to be preparing to open their doors to more foreign graduates in the wake of the economic downturn.

A cheaper US dollar, scores of student accommodation and faster visa approval times than Australia, should give the United States an edge, according to a report in The Australian's Higher Education section.

"The obvious implication is the market for foreign students will become more competitive because you will have a lot of large and high-prestige universities competing for students," he said.

THE levels of waste being uncovered as part of the Rudd government's Building the Education Revolution are continuing to come to light with a report in The Australian showing school canteens built by the Catholic school system under the controversial $16.2 billion program, are up to five times cheaper than those delivered by the government.

Geraldton's St Lawrence Primary School at Bluff Point has developed a 10m x 7.5 m canteen for $4043 per square metre.

By comparison, the governments "unusable" small NSW canteens, measuring 8.47m x 3.1 m, costs $23,000 per square metre.

KOREAN-based investors have emerged as one of the biggest buyers of Australian commercial real estate since the 2008 economic downturn.

In one of the most recent moves, Ikogest Asia, a Luxembourg-based, Korean-backed pension fund, reportedly made an offer to pay about $200 million for the industrial holdings, and part of a float being offloaded by Melbourne-based developer Salta Properties.

Singapore's GIC is now reportedly investigating that portfolio.