{"id":27775,"date":"2026-02-04T09:00:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T17:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=27775"},"modified":"2026-02-03T10:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T18:01:09","slug":"camosun-moving-ahead-with-lansdowne-student-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2026\/02\/04\/camosun-moving-ahead-with-lansdowne-student-housing\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun moving ahead with Lansdowne student housing"},"content":{"rendered":"

In November of last year, the District of Oak Bay granted two major approvals for Camosun College to move ahead toward building its first on-campus housing at the Lansdowne campus. After receiving Official Community Plan and rezoning amendments, plans are underway to begin construction in the spring of 2026. The building will feature over 400 beds in a variety of unit types, as well as lounges and other spaces; it will be located where there\u2019s currently parking off Foul Bay Road.<\/p>\n

The provincial government is contributing $151.7 million to the project, and Camosun is contributing $3 million.<\/p>\n

Camosun College Student Society Lansdowne executive Regina Cervantes is very excited for student housing to come to Camosun, and she says that other students are as well.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
An artist\u2019s conceptual rendering of the planned student housing to be located on Camosun College\u2019s Lansdowne campus (image courtesy of Camosun College).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe students think that it\u2019s going to be a great program and it\u2019s going to be very beneficial for everyone, especially because it\u2019s so hard to afford to get housing around the campus,\u201d says Cervantes. \u201cAnd there are a lot of students that have to come from far away like Sooke or other places, so we think it\u2019s going to be very beneficial.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cervantes says that one issue that\u2019s been raised is regarding how the project will impact international students. She says that while some feel it will make finding housing easier and cheaper, others are concerned about the possibility of international students having to pay more for housing than domestic students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we are going to have to wait and see the [cost], because it\u2019s usually more for international students,\u201d says Cervantes. \u201cI think it will be beneficial because they will have a place to stay on campus and it\u2019s going to make their life easier. I\u2019m an international student and it was so hard trying to find housing here while living back home. It\u2019s very hard to move to a new country, so if you have it here, that\u2019s amazing. So, yeah, I think its going to be beneficial, but we\u2019ll have to wait and see how much they\u2019ll need to pay to be there. That\u2019s the only thing that I\u2019m afraid of, that its going to be double or way more and they won\u2019t be able to afford it.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if international and domestic students will pay the same housing charges, a spokesperson for the college said that rental costs and policies will be finalized closer to project completion.<\/p>\n

Cervantes says that another concern students have is over the loss of parking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s one thing that students that do drive are worried about,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s parking, and it\u2019s very expensive to start with, and there\u2019s not a lot of space there. They do not like that and they\u2019re worried about where we are going to park, and they are not very happy about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Camosun director of campus planning and capital projects Tyson Loreth says that he and his team have calculated that parking space shouldn\u2019t be a problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe college has done a significant amount of assessment,\u201d he says, \u201cand has determined there is ample parking and we are able to accommodate the loss of the parking spots where the building will sit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loreth says that he and his team have been looking forward to building the student housing for years and are very excited to get construction underway.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe college has been trying to and looking to build student housing, all the way back to 2015, I think. And so, it has been a goal for the college to provide on-campus housing for students for the better part of 10-plus years,\u201d says Loreth. \u201cWe have been working really closely with our government partners, the college, and our local municipality Oak Bay to support the project and get it to the point where it is today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loreth sees a lot of value in the project finally being built, believing it will help students as well as the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the college\u2019s standpoint, providing safe and affordable accommodation does multiple things,\u201d he says. \u201cOne is, it is safe and provides an area for people to be supported. Also, financially, the rooms will be at market rate to be determined and therefore will allow students to go to Camosun College and gain a post-secondary education at a reasonable price. It also allows other secondary dwellings around the college, where those 420 students would have to reside, an opportunity that could be presented to the larger community. Getting them out of basement suites or other secondary accommodation they would need, now they can be on campus.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He also says the project allows the college to have community, adding that it\u2019s also an opportunity for those who want to go to Camosun but can\u2019t because they can\u2019t find or afford housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy us having student housing, we lend ourselves to students who want to live and learn in Victoria,\u201d he says, \u201cand I think it\u2019s just a really good thing to provide and have for students in today\u2019s world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cervantes hopes that the on-campus housing will bring something to Camosun students.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully it\u2019ll help and benefit all the students,\u201d she says, \u201cso we are looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In November of last year, the District of Oak Bay granted two major approvals for Camosun College to move ahead toward building its first on-campus housing at the Lansdowne campus. After receiving Official Community Plan and rezoning amendments, plans are underway to begin construction in the spring of 2026. The building will feature over 400 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27776,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[347,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-february-4-2026","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27775"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27780,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27775\/revisions\/27780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}