Scape Queensberry at 599 Swanston Street, Carlton publishes something most Melbourne student accommodation buildings don't: a complete price ladder across multiple room types, from A$379 to A$839 a week. That makes it one of the few properties where you can do the maths properly before you book.
So rather than a general review, here's the decision the ladder actually forces — and how the numbers stack up across a full academic year.
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The full price ladder
| Room type | Weekly | Cost over 40 weeks |
| Twin room in 6-bed apartment | $379 | $15,160 |
| Twin room in 5-bed apartment | $379 | $15,160 |
| 2-bed shared apartment | $399 | $15,960 |
| 6-bedroom apartment | $469 | $18,760 |
| 5-bedroom apartment | $479 | $19,160 |
| 4-bed apartment | $489 | $19,560 |
| 2-bedroom apartment | $499 | $19,960 |
| Ultra Studio apartment | $639 | |
| 1-bedroom apartment | $839 | $33,560 |
40 weeks is used as a standard academic-year approximation for comparison. Your actual lease length will differ — run the same maths against the contract you're offered.
The headline number: the gap between the cheapest and most expensive room is $460 a week, or roughly $18,400 across an academic year. That's not a room upgrade. That's a different financial decision entirely.
The three real decision points
$379 to $469 — the "do I want my own bedroom?" jump
Ninety dollars a week separates a twin room (you share a bedroom) from a private bedroom in a 6-bedroom apartment. Over 40 weeks that's $3,600.
This is the decision most students underestimate. Sharing a bedroom is genuinely different from sharing a flat — it affects sleep, study, having anyone over, and having any solitude at all. If you've never shared a bedroom with a stranger, be honest about whether $3,600 across a year is worth finding out the hard way in week three of semester.
$469 to $499 — the "how many flatmates?" band
Here's the counterintuitive part of the ladder: a 6-bedroom apartment ($469) is cheaper than a 2-bedroom apartment ($499) — but only by $30 a week. Fewer flatmates costs barely anything extra in this band.
If you're choosing anywhere in this $469–$499 range, the price is close to flat while the living situation changes a lot. Pick on how you actually want to live — kitchen traffic, noise, how many people's dishes you'll be looking at — not on the price, because the price is nearly the same.
$499 to $839 — the self-contained premium
Going from a 2-bedroom apartment to a fully self-contained 1-bedroom costs $340 a week, or about $13,600 a year. The Ultra Studio at $639 splits the difference.
Straight assessment: this is a large premium for privacy. It's justified if you're a postgrad, you work from home, you're a light sleeper, or you're bringing a partner. For a first-year undergraduate, the shared options are usually both cheaper and better socially — the flat is where you meet people in a new city.
Where it is, and what that's worth
- RMIT — 0.4 miles, roughly a 2-minute walk
- University of Melbourne (Parkville) — 0.5 miles, about a 14-minute walk
Both campuses are walkable, which is the real argument for Carlton over cheaper suburbs further out: no daily transport cost, no timetable dependency, no commute in the Melbourne winter.
What's included
Utility bills and Wi-Fi are included across room types, along with a television, storage, heating and air conditioning, electric stove, microwave, fridge, and dishwasher. Building facilities include a gym, cinema room, rooftop terrace with BBQ, bike storage, laundry, and 24/7 on-site support.
The included utilities matter for the comparison maths above — a private rental at the same headline rent would cost more once power, water and internet are added.
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Conclusion
If you're on a tight budget and can genuinely handle sharing a bedroom, the $379 twin rooms are the strongest value on this ladder. If you can stretch to $469, take the private bedroom in a 6-bed apartment — it's the biggest quality-of-life gain per dollar anywhere in the range, and the jump to fewer flatmates above it costs almost nothing extra while delivering much less than the first jump did.
Only go past $499 if privacy is a genuine requirement rather than a preference. At $839, you're paying more than double the entry point, and for most undergraduates that money is better spent elsewhere.