There are two ways to read a building with a gym on level 45. One is that it is a marketing flourish. The other is that the building is 45-plus storeys tall in the middle of Melbourne's CBD, which tells you almost everything about what living there is like before you read a single line about room types.
UniLodge Melbourne Central is at 293 La Trobe Street, Melbourne VIC 3000, a five-minute walk from RMIT University's City campus, with indicative rates from around A$485 a week including bills. It is a high-rise, high-amenity, high-density CBD tower, and it is priced at the upper end of Melbourne's purpose-built student accommodation market.
This guide sets out what that price buys, what it does not, and the specific kinds of student for whom the maths works.
Quick facts
| Detail | UniLodge Melbourne Central |
| Address | 293 La Trobe Street, Melbourne VIC 3000 |
| Indicative rent | From around A$485/week, all bills included |
| Room types | Studio (Standard and Queen), 2-bedroom share, 6-bedroom share |
| Included in rent | Furnishings, utilities, Wi-Fi, regular cleaning, 24/7 onsite support, all facilities |
| RMIT City campus | 5-minute walk |
| University of Melbourne | Nearby — tram along Swanston Street |
| Melbourne Central station | Walking distance |
| Queen Victoria Market | Walking distance |
| Security | Secure access, CCTV, 24/7 onsite staff |
The location: CBD north-west corner
La Trobe Street runs along the northern edge of Melbourne's CBD grid, and number 293 sits close to the intersection with the Queen Victoria Market precinct. That position matters in three specific ways.
RMIT City is a five-minute walk. RMIT's City campus is spread across the northern end of the CBD around Swanston and Bowen Streets, and this address puts you inside that footprint rather than commuting into it. For an RMIT student, this is a walk-to-class building in a city where most students commute by tram.
University of Melbourne is a tram ride. Parkville is north of the CBD up Swanston Street, and the trams along that corridor are frequent. It is genuinely usable — but it is a tram, not a walk. A University of Melbourne student who wants to walk to campus should be looking at Carlton or Parkville addresses instead, and our guide to student housing near the University of Melbourne covers those options.
Melbourne Central station is walking distance, putting the whole metropolitan rail network within reach, including the airport bus connections from Southern Cross. If your week involves placements, a part-time job in a suburb, or regular travel, this is the practical advantage of a CBD address over a campus suburb.
Queen Victoria Market is the underrated detail. It is one of the cheapest places in inner Melbourne to buy fresh food, particularly in the final hour of trading, and it is walkable from here. For a student paying A$485 a week, the ability to keep a food budget low is not a minor consideration — it is part of what makes the rent survivable. Our cost comparison between Sydney and Melbourne student accommodation puts those weekly living costs in context.
The CBD trade-off, stated plainly
Living in a CBD tower is not the same as living in a student suburb, and the difference is not only noise.
You are in a district that is busy on weekdays, loud on weekends, and populated by people who are not students. There is no lawn, no campus green, no walk home past other people from your course. What you get instead is everything open late, a transport network on your doorstep, and a genuine city on the other side of the door.
Some students thrive on that and some feel curiously isolated in the middle of it. If you are arriving from overseas and this is your first time living alone, weigh it carefully — the best housing for first-year international students in Australia works through how building type affects your first semester.
Room types
Three configurations:
- Studio apartments — Standard and Queen options, self-contained
- 2-bedroom shared apartments — private bedroom, shared kitchen and living with one other
- 6-bedroom shared apartments — private bedroom, shared facilities with five others
All are fully furnished, with a bed, storage, a dedicated study space and modern fittings.
The Standard versus Queen studio distinction is worth understanding before you book: it is a bed-size and floor-area difference, and it prices differently. In a small studio, the difference between a single-ish bed and a queen is not just comfort — it is how much floor is left over for a desk and a chair you can actually work at. Ask for the square metreage of both before deciding, not just the photos.
The A$485 indicative figure is a starting rate, and in a building with this spread it will correspond to a bed in the six-bedroom share, not a studio. Budget accordingly. A CBD studio in this building will sit materially higher, and if a studio is non-negotiable for you, price it directly rather than anchoring to the headline.
If you are choosing between a share apartment and a studio, the types of student housing available in Australia sets out the structural differences, and roommate matching questionnaires at PBSA providers explains how you get allocated the five people you will share a kitchen with.
What the rent includes
The building runs an all-inclusive model: furnishings, utilities, Wi-Fi, access to every facility, 24/7 onsite support, and regular cleaning services.
The cleaning inclusion is unusual and worth naming. Most Australian PBSA includes utilities and internet but leaves cleaning to residents. Scheduled cleaning of shared areas in a six-bedroom apartment removes the single most common source of flatmate conflict in student housing. It is a real part of what you are paying for.
Laundry is card-operated and charged per use, so budget for it separately across the year.
Facilities
The amenity list is the most vertical in Melbourne student accommodation, and the floor numbers are the point:
- Level 45 gym with panoramic city views
- Level 44 cinema and sky lounge
- Level 12 outdoor terrace with BBQs
- Library on the mezzanine level
- Music room with a piano and guitars
- Games lounge with pool tables
- Multiple study areas and lounges
- Communal kitchens
- Laundry facilities, card payment
Two observations. First, a free gym at this quality is worth roughly A$700–900 a year against a comparable Melbourne CBD membership, which claws back a meaningful slice of the rent premium — but only if you actually use it. Second, the library on the mezzanine is the amenity that matters most in exam season. A building with a games lounge and a sky lounge needs a genuinely quiet room, and the fact that it is on a low floor away from the social levels is good design rather than a checkbox.
The vertical separation is deliberate: social amenities on 44 and 45, a terrace on 12, study space on the mezzanine. In practice that means you can go up for company or down for silence, and neither is on your bedroom floor.
Security
Secure access, CCTV monitoring and 24/7 onsite staff.
In a tower of this size, 24/7 staffing is the security feature that counts — it means there is a person in the building at 3am, not just a camera. If personal safety is a primary concern in your decision, is Melbourne student accommodation safe for female students covers what to look for and what to ask on a tour.
Two policies worth knowing
"No Visa? No Pay." If your student visa is denied, you receive a full refund. This is a genuinely valuable term for international applicants and it is not universal across the sector. Visa refusal after paying a deposit is one of the most common and most costly problems international students face — read what happens if your student visa is delayed after paying a deposit for the wider picture, and confirm the exact wording and evidence requirements of this policy in writing before you rely on it.
Refer a friend: A$300 credit for both parties, on leases of six months or more. If you are arriving with a friend from the same course or country, applying in a way that captures this is A$600 of value between you for filling in a name. Ask about it before you both book independently.
The money
At an indicative A$485 a week, Melbourne Central sits at the premium end of the market. Across a 44-week academic year that is roughly A$21,300 for the cheapest configuration, before food, transport and course costs.
The comparison that matters is not against a cheap suburban share house — it is against other CBD-adjacent PBSA. Scape Queensberry and Scape Franklin occupy similar territory in Carlton and the CBD fringe, and Yugo University Square in Carlton is the University of Melbourne-facing equivalent. Run all four on the same room type and the same lease length before you decide — the headline rates are not comparable until you do.
If the number is simply too high, the honest answer is that Melbourne has cheaper student suburbs and our guide to the cheapest neighbourhoods for University of Melbourne students maps them. A CBD tower is a choice, not a necessity.
Before signing anything, understand the agreement type — PBSA contracts are usually licences rather than residential tenancies, and the difference affects your rights. The difference between a licence and a tenancy agreement in student housing explains the distinction, and how to break a student accommodation contract early in Australia covers the exit.
Who this building suits
Strong fit if:
- You study at RMIT City and want to walk to campus
- You want a large, high-amenity building with a strong social infrastructure
- You value being in the CBD itself rather than a student suburb
- You will use the gym, cinema and study spaces enough to justify the premium
- You are an international applicant who wants the visa-refusal refund protection
Weaker fit if:
- You are at the University of Melbourne and want to walk to Parkville — Carlton and Parkville addresses do that better
- Budget is your binding constraint
- You want quiet, greenery, or a residential neighbourhood feel
- You dislike high-rise living or long lift waits at peak times, which are a genuine feature of tall student towers
Frequently asked questions
Where is UniLodge Melbourne Central?
293 La Trobe Street, Melbourne VIC 3000, on the northern edge of the Melbourne CBD grid, near Queen Victoria Market.
How much does UniLodge Melbourne Central cost per week?
Indicative rates start from around A$485 per week with bills included. That figure reflects the cheapest shared configuration; studios cost more. Confirm the rate for your room type and lease dates with the property.
How far is UniLodge Melbourne Central from RMIT?
RMIT University's City campus is a five-minute walk.
Is UniLodge Melbourne Central close to the University of Melbourne?
It is close, but not walking distance to the Parkville campus. The connection is by tram up Swanston Street.
What room types does UniLodge Melbourne Central offer?
Studio apartments in Standard and Queen configurations, plus 2-bedroom and 6-bedroom shared apartments.
What does the rent include?
Furnishings, utilities, Wi-Fi, regular cleaning, 24/7 onsite support and access to all building facilities. Laundry is card-operated and charged separately.
What is the "No Visa? No Pay" policy?
The property offers a full refund if your student visa application is denied. Confirm the exact terms and evidence requirements in writing before relying on it.
Canclusion
UniLodge Melbourne Central is an RMIT building first and a CBD lifestyle building second. If you study five minutes away and will genuinely use a level 45 gym, a level 44 cinema and a mezzanine library, the premium is defensible.
If you are at the University of Melbourne, or if A$485 a week is a stretch you would feel every month, Melbourne has better-matched options a few tram stops north — and choosing one of them is not a downgrade, it is a better fit.
