Albert House was established in 1998 by Tiong Kam and Hui Yan Tan under their family company Supreme Gourmet House Pty Ltd. After years of hosting and caring for home-stay students in their own home the Tan’s had developed a real heart for the overseas-student market, and were always striving to provide these students with a place where they could feel at home, even when they were so far away from home.
Seeing the growing demand for quality accommodation options for international students coming to Melbourne the Tan’s, with some business partners, established Palmerston House student accommodation in Carlton in 1995.

Following on from this, in 1997 the Tan’s branched out on their own, purchasing the building at 57-65 Drummond Carlton, and converting it from an office building into Albert House Student Accommodation. Albert House allowed the Tan’s to continue their mission of providing a home away from home for international students in Melbourne, where they could transition into student life in Melbourne as smoothly as possible.

After operating Albert House for six years, the management of Albert House was passed on to two further operators between 2003 to 2019. In April 2019, Albert House returned under the original management of Supreme Gourmet House Pty Ltd (Tiong Kam, Hui Yan and their daughter, Pauline). Since this time, Albert House has undergone vast renovations and a full refurbishment to bring the property up to date in order to improve the service offering to all residents.

Today, as the student accommodation market is being inundated with large-scale apartment developments in and around inner-city Melbourne, Albert House distinguishes itself as a boutique student accommodation providing residents with the premium offering of full board and lodging. We provide fully-cooked meals 6 days a week so that our residents don’t have to worry about cooking or preparing meals for themselves.

These meals as well as all utilities (electricity, water, Internet) are included in the rates, so once our residents have moved in, there are no additional living costs incurred. For the safety and security of our residents, Albert House provides both male and female live-in onsite supervisors, and all Albert House staff are required hold a current Working With Children Check.

The intimate size of Albert House allows for the development of a close-knit community amongst our residents where they can interact during meals, socialise or study together in our common areas, and organise other activities together such as sports or exercise in the nearby gardens or visits to the number of arts and cultural events that Melbourne plays host to throughout each year.

Albert House is truly a unique student accommodation offering in the heart of Melbourne that gives our international residents convenient access to universities, beautiful outdoor spaces, and the great culture of food, sports and arts that Melbourne is famous for, whilst still providing a protective and safe place for them to come home to.