Y Suites offers purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) with a focus on wellbeing, and creating a lifestyle for study, friendships, and fun. Y Suites offers studios and apartments in the heart of Australia’s university precincts, with an amazing range of facilities in a safe and secure modern, purpose-built development.
Y Suites is developed and owned by Wee Hur Capital of Singapore. CEO Goh Wee Ping explains the driving force behind the brand’s unique approach.
“We aim to provide a home away from home for our students. Many of them come from outside of Australia and are not only leaving home for the first time, but facing the challenge of living in a new country. We give them and their families peace of mind that they are in a safe environment, where student welfare is a top priority. We provide living spaces where they can not only study, but just as importantly, an environment that encourages them to make friends, socialise, and make the absolute best of student life,” says Ping.
The Y Suites developments are designed with an array of amenities and facilities to take the hassle out of everyday living, ensure safety, and encourage community. These include shared kitchens and lounge-rooms, meeting rooms, skylounge, music and dance studios, gym and yoga facilities, cinema rooms, study courtyards, basketball facilities, multi-purpose rooms, bike storage and laundries. – all the amenities that a student could dream of to feel at home and to allow them to grow as a person, make friends, stay focused, and study.
Students can choose between a range of rooms to suit their lifestyle and budget – from single, ensuite rooms with kitchenette, to twin rooms, and apartments where up to eight individual rooms share a kitchen and living areas.
- Personal safety — The SALTO solution gives Wee Hur a clear view of access patterns, which they use to monitor and manage students’ wellbeing and safety. For example, with live monitoring on the battery-operated wireless online locks over the dedicated SALTO network, every access is reported live to the SALTO head-end system. It shows if a lock has not been used, indicating that a student may not be using their room, or may be unwell inside. Wee Hur can create a customised report, and define a period of non-use that will trigger an alert, sending the student’s contact details to the building manager.
- Protection from infection — With the continued need to be vigilant against the spread of viruses, Y-Suites can also use SALTO’s real-time monitoring for contact tracing. If a student tests positive for COVID-19, for example, they can rapidly identify who has used the same lift, or shared facilities at the same time. The locks even have an additional level of protection, with a BioCote® protective finish that limits the spread of bacteria and viruses.
- Emergency response — The SALTO solution offers the ability to rapidly put rooms into lockdown to prevent potential attacks. This can be triggered by an alarm and actioned from the head-end software or from an emergency duress button. It’s a feature Wee Hur hopes not to use, but must have in place to ensure student safety. Thanks to the sophisticated SALTO wireless on-line system, lockdown restriction can also be applied to an individual room after a student has tested positive for COVID, while sending an inside lever activation alarm every time the student attempts opening the door, enabling the management to be aware of the situation and be proactive.
- Fast and easy arrival process — Students come to Australia from all around the world, and arrive at all times of day and night. They want to access their room with a minimum level of hassle. SALTO sends them a temporary digital key prior to their arrival which stays in the cloud until the student downloads the SALTO JustIn Mobile app as soon as they land in Australia. The digital key gives them access to the building, lift, and their room, no matter the time of day or night. The next morning, students complete their registration and are given their physical keycard.
- Single access card — Unlike other student accommodations, where residents need two access credentials for the base building and their room or are using MIFARE Ultralight C card format, students at Y Suites need only one keycard. Their single 1k MIFARE card gives them access to the building, lifts, all shared facilities, their apartment, and their room. It’s paired with the SALTO energy system, and also provides the operator with information on the student’s identity and movement across the building. A single card reduces the chances of the credential getting shared, lost, or forgotten.
- Lowering operational running costs — The SALTO EAC contributes to a highly efficient operation for Wee Hur, enabling them to create a state-of-the art building with reduced running costs.
- Reducing student lock outs — One of the biggest management overheads with student accommodation is accidental lockouts. The SALTO system, with its exit-leaves-open feature, minimises the chances of students getting locked out of their room. The programmable locks can either be set to stay permanently unlocked until the keycard is used to lock the room, or to stay unlocked for a period of time (anything from a few seconds to several minutes) before locking itself. This reduces management overheads and enhances Wee Hur’s ability to meet their duty of care requirements.
- Remote management — The SALTO solution allows Wee Hur to manage the building without having staff on the premises at all times. Doors to shared amenities can be automatically locked and unlocked on a time schedule, and, if a door is left open, or is forced open outside of the access times, the building manager receives an alert. Alerts are also sent when the battery in a wire-free lock needs changing, eliminating the requirement for manual checking of hundreds of batteries. And if, despite exit-leaves-open, a student did get locked out of their room outside of hours, the building manager can open it remotely.
- Energy saving — The ESDs ensure that lights, heating, and AC are not left running in an empty room, making for significant power saving costs. SALTO ESDs are unique in having a programmable time delay. In bedrooms, this is set to six seconds, but in the shared kitchens, an innovative approach sees the delay set for up to 30 minutes, meaning that students can go back to their room whilst their meal is cooking, without switching off the power to the cooker. This not only enables students to maximise their study time but reduces stress on electrical appliances and extends their working life. Energy savings are also generated by the use of BLE for communication between the locks and the network, which use significantly less power than having every room lock hard-wired.
- Standardised solution and selection of contractors — Wee Hur knew that standardising their access control solution across all properties would help manage costs, and SALTO’s national and international presence means that no matter where they open facilities in the future, they can deploy the same solution. SALTO’s extensive ecosystem of partners means that there is a wide choice of certified installation contractors, but that SALTO remains the key point of contact for the overall relationship, no matter which company is conducting any given installation.
Y Suites offers purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) with a focus on wellbeing, and creating a lifestyle for study, friendships, and fun. Y Suites offers studios and apartments in the heart of Australia’s university precincts, with an amazing range of facilities in a safe and secure modern, purpose-built development.
