The request is an updated version of enlisting little old ladies willing to house young undergraduates as potential boarders. However, the granny flat in the backyard will no longer suffice. Instead, the building must have at least 30 beds.

Property owners in Glebe, Chippendale, Haymarket, Leichhardt and more than a walk away at Paddington have responded to the advertisements, which ask for short-term accommodation based on a minimum three-year lease arrangement with a three-year option.

The university would then sublet the rooms to its students.

The University of Sydney's campus infrastructure and services director, Colin Rockcliff, said the university had only 2600 beds available for students spread across eight residential colleges on the main campus, the Sydney University Village in Newtown and various other places at Nepean, Camden and Cumberland.

It also had low-cost rental in a co-operative house in Forest Lodge and subsidised rental in university-owned terrace houses in Darlington.

He said they wanted to provide between 6000 and 8000 beds to meet the demand for affordable housing.

Universities across Sydney, however, are struggling to meet this housing demand. Fewer than 10 per cent of students live in student accommodation provided by universities in Sydney. In the US and Canada, up to 50 per cent of students use student housing.

Five public universities in Sydney are at present negotiating with the NSW Premier, Nathan Rees, to relax planning laws and free up Crown land to help ease the demand.

The NSW Vice-Chancellors Council, chaired by Professor Fred Hilmer, has started discussions with Mr Rees over planning approvals.

The University of Technology Sydney and the University of Sydney also have raised the possibility of Crown land being made available for low-cost student housing at Harold Park, North Eveleigh and elsewhere.

Other universities are seeking financial assistance or incentives for smaller housing projects after at least three deals reliant on private equity collapsed this year.

''We need to provide some relief to this problem,'' Mr Rockcliff said. ''We are exploring a number of longer-term options but getting property owners to help us would provide immediate relief. It's a bit out there asking for the community to help … but it may work. The university, however, would have to take responsibility for the standards of housing.''

The expressions of interest close on Monday.

A spokesman for the Science and Medical Research Minister, Jodi McKay, said the NSW Government would continue to negotiate with the higher education sector to address the student housing issue.

Source: www.smh.com.au/national/wanted-housing-for-uni-students-20091127-jwws.html