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As a domestic first year student, you are guaranteed an offer of accommodation in one of our residences. Your accommodation application is included as part of your Early Offer application to ANU.
To apply for an Early Offer, you must:
We know how important it is to start your university journey in a residence where you’ll feel comfortable and supported. As part of the Early Offer process, you will have the chance to submit a request to update your residential allocation, including up to three additional preferences.
While we will do our very best to accommodate as many requests as possible, please note that updates are subject to availability, and we may not be able to meet all requests due to limited spaces in some residences.
Change of preference requests can be submitted from 3 to 16 November 2025, and you must have accepted your Early Offer of accommodation to be eligible.
You will have to apply for accommodation separately through the ANU Accommodation portal. As a first year commencing student, you’re covered by the accommodation guarantee, which means you’ll receive an accommodation offer if you accept your ANU academic offer.
Please keep in mind that accommodation offers outside of the Early Offer process are released on a rolling basis from November and follow a different timeline to the Early Offer process.
If you no longer need on-campus accommodation, you can decline your accommodation offer on the Early Offer portal.
Absolutely! We'd love to show you around. Our team can organise a tour of any of our residences on weekdays — just get in touch with us at uni.accom@anu.edu.au to arrange a visit.
If you’re planning to visit on a weekend, we recommend reaching out to our Future Students team, who run campus tours on Saturdays.
And if you can’t make it to campus in person, don’t worry — you can explore our residences any time through virtual tours available on our website under each residence.
Each year, we receive a high number of applications for catered residences, often exceeding the number of available beds. If we’re unable to offer you a place in your first preference for catered accommodation, we’ll do our best to explore other catered options before considering a self-catered residence.
We understand that choosing between catered and self-catered accommodation can be an important part of your university experience, and we’ll always try to accommodate your preferences wherever possible. However, we encourage students to remain open and flexible and while ANU guarantees an offer of accommodation to all students, we can’t guarantee that it will be for your preferred residence.
Yes — when you receive your final offer in December or January, you’ll have the option to add yourself to a waitlist for any residence, including catered options.
However, please keep in mind that if you choose to go on a waitlist, we won’t be able to hold your original offer while you wait. Although we’ll do our best to make you another offer, we can’t guarantee that a spot will become available in your preferred residence.
Catered residences are in very high demand, and due to Early Offer acceptance deadlines, availability for waitlisted students may not be confirmed until 30 January 2026.
For all other residences, waitlists are reviewed and processed on a rolling basis as spaces become available.
Unfortunately, accommodation offers made through the Early Offer process cannot be deferred.
If you choose to defer your ANU academic offer, we encourage you to submit a new accommodation application through the ANU Accommodation Portal when applications for Semester 1 2026 open on 1 September 2025.
Be sure to include details about your deferral in your application so we can prioritise processing it.
If you decline your original ANU academic offer to enrol in a different program at ANU, your accommodation offer will also be withdrawn. You will need to reapply for accommodation through the ANU Accommodation portal, but an offer is not guaranteed.
Once you accept your final accommodation offer, which will be released from December via the Early Offer portal, we’ll send you an email with all the next steps — including your accommodation contract and access to our portal to pay the Acceptance Fees.
After your fees are paid, your allocated residence will reach out with a welcome email, full of helpful information to support a smooth transition to on-campus living.
The Acceptance Fees include two weeks of rent, a refundable deposit, a student registration fee, and a residential committee fee. You can find details about these fees for each residence in the Residential Fee Summary.
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