Accommodation Type - General definitions
Contains a summary of accommodation types for students.
Hostel
A hostel is accommodation that may include shared facilities such as kitchen, bathroom, lounge and recreation room. Some university hostels provide a subsidised rate for students attending that particular university.
Housing New Zealand
Housing New Zealand Corporation is a Crown agent that provides good quality, affordable rental homes for people on low incomes or with special housing needs. Rental properties owned or managed by Housing New Zealand, are generally more affordable because they are subsidised by the Crown.
Renting
Renting is where a tenant or tenants pay an agreed amount with the landlord to occupy the residence owned by the landlord. Generally, renting only involves the cost of the premises i.e. doesn't include expenses such as food, power or telephone.
Where you are living with your parents and paying rent, you may not be considered as renting for Student Allowance purposes. Instead, you may be considered to be living in the parental home (see definition for parental home below).
Boarding
Board is when the amount paid for accommodation also includes other expenses such as food, phone or electricity.
Where you are living with your parents and paying board to them, you would not be considered as boarding for Student Allowance purposes. Instead you would be considered to be living in the parental home (see definition of parental home below).
Parental home
A parental home in regards to Student Allowance entitlement, means a home where the student is living with a parent.
A parental home in regards to eligibility to an Accommodation Benefit, means a home where the student is living with a parent, or a home provided or maintained by the parent of the student. Ownership is not considered when determining whether a residence is provided or maintained by a parent (for example, if you live in a residence that is controlled by your parent through a trust, it may still be considered to be provided and/or maintained by your parents).
A parental home doesn’t include a property (where the parent is not living) where the student is paying market rent for the area of the property they occupy or, is responsible for the payment of the outgoings for the area of the property they occupy. Outgoings can include payments for the following: mortgage, rates, house insurance and essential repairs and maintenance. Expenses such as phone, power or internet payments are not considered to be outgoings.
Note: the parent must not be contributing to these payments.
A parental home does not include a property where the student and parent are sharing accommodation and that property is not considered to be the home of a parent (where a parent ordinarily lives and considers their home).
Own home
You live in a home which you own, or jointly own.
