Higher education institutions (HEIs) in Ireland have experienced a considerable growth in student numbers over the last 10 years. This growth in enrolments is predicted to continue for at least the next decade. The geographies of the student population in cities has been a largely overlooked research area in the Irish context, yet the major HEIs in Ireland accepting these growing enrolments are located in urban centres. Further, urban renewal schemes of the late 1990s actively encouraged the development of purpose-built student accommodation in Ireland to relieve the supply pressures being felt in the private rental sector at the time. The Irish government introduced tax incentives to encourage private investment and development in urban areas, with a particular scheme aimed at student accommodation. This paper offers the first analysis of the impacts of student populations and targeted urban renewal schemes for purpose-built student accommodation in Ireland. After a review of the current research field, the paper offers a brief overview of the student population nationally and then examines a number of recent purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) developments in Cork to offer an understanding of the scale and extent of newlyconstructed student accommodation. Finally, the paper offers an analysis of the impacts of PBSA in Cork city.

In Australia, master planned estates are emerging as a favoured form of residential development, finding support from urban planners and government. The proliferation of master planned estates has led urban researchers to comment on the socially exclusive nature of many of these new developments and their potential contribution to socio-spatial polarisation in the urban landscape. Do master planned estates purposefully inculcate an image of exclusivity, and do these constructions result in socio-spatial polarisation? A case study of the contribution of master planned estates to polarisation in the urban landscape is examined here. This research analysed the intentions, imagery and outcomes of a specific master planned estate in suburban Sydney -Glenmore Park. The established, socially constructed, and in some ways negative image of western Sydney has been used as a mirror against which an alternative -albeit exclusive and distinct -identity for Glenmore Park has been advanced. The intended image was for an exclusive and prestigious estate for white nuclear families. The developers and place marketers played a key role in the construction of this exclusivity, which ultimately superseded some of the more socially inclusive planning objectives for the area. The overriding conclusion from this research is that, in this case, there is an explicit connection between intentions and imagery, which encourages socio-spatial polarisation.

Residents of private residential estates must negotiate the complex of expectations, rights and responsibilities that comes with the community title legislation that defines the management and structure of these neighbourhoods. Of particular importance is the way in which the governance structure of these estates simultaneously supports and threatens their social and financial viability. Drawing on the findings of research conducted in a privately governed master planned residential estate in Sydney, Australia, this article considers the residents' lived experience of the community title scheme. It argues that a perceived lack of transparency in the contractual arrangements which residents enter into when they purchase a property within a private estate directly frames a set of expectations that are at odds with their legislative responsibilities. Also evident is the existence of tensions between the demands placed on residents by the structure of private governance that manages and polices the estate and those of the local government that manages the area within which the estate is located. The article concludes that there is a need for policy attention to be given to the development and management of private residential estates in Australia.

This article reviews research on the contemporary marketing of private communities. Ultimately, the success of this marketing relies upon some existing or insipient consumer preferences. The urban studies literature offers at least five related sets of explanations for the emergence of desires for privatised residential communities, which we outline in this article. Yet, the research to date on the selling of private residential communities has tended to investigate specific features of private communities (e.g. demand, supply, representation and discourse) and has eschewed a more holistic encapsulation of the phenomenon. We use this article to propose a holistic approach that contemplates the ‘virtuous cycles’ that favour private community growth.

Part of a broader trend towards all-inclusive master planned developments, gated residential estates are an intensely private form of residential development with a degree of securitisation. Gated residential estates have been the topic of intense debate in urban planning and policy circles and the target of fierce criticism for potential exclusionary outcomes as fearful residents lock themselves away from the ills of wider urban society. Crime, a fear of crime and the need for security dominate discussions and understandings of gated residential developments in Australia without much empirical validation. This paper poses two key research questions: does fear of crime and need for increased security drive residents towards gated estates; and what are the lived experiences of security, gates and crime once residing within a gated estate? Based on in-depth research in Macquarie Links (one of Sydney's largest gated estates) this paper offers insights into the lived dimensions of gated estates. The paper explores the attractions and realities of security services and infrastructure, private control over the residential environment and the importance placed by the residents on the ability to protect the nature of their neighbourhood and to protect themselves from any 'unwanted' activities or groups. The discussion in this paper demonstrates that for the residents in the study, residing in a secure residential neighbourhood is less about the role and place of physical security and security services, and more to do with protection afforded by the private governance structure of the neighbourhood.