Transforming Living Spaces in Australia

Build To Rent

Build-to-Rent” (BTR) is a property development and asset-management model in which a developer or institutional investor builds residential units with the intention to retain ownership and rent them out, rather than selling them off individually. Key features typically include:

• Single ownership / portfolio ownership, rather than many individual “mum & dad” landlords.
• Professional property management for tenants (amenities, maintenance, leasing, services).
• Long-term holding horizon (i.e. not short-term flips).
• Design considerations for rental operations (durability, amenity spaces, services, flexibility).
• Scale / minimum size thresholds (to make the model viable).
• Possibility of affordable or inclusionary housing components in some schemes.

Australia’s Build-to-Rent (BTR) sector continued its rapid expansion in 2024, with the operational footprint doubling to over 10,000 units. A total of 4,878 new apartments reached completion during the year, driving a surge in leasing activity particularly across Melbourne, which alone absorbed more than 2,000 CBD-fringe units.

Looking ahead, a further 5,928 units are forecast to complete in 2025, with delivery led by Victoria (61%), followed by Queensland (25%) and New South Wales (14%). By year-end, the national BTR pipeline is expected to reach approximately 16,200 operational units — marking another year of significant sector growth and investor confidence. (source Franklin St)



Purpose Built Student Accommodation

Purpose-Built Student Accommodation” (PBSA) refers to residential developments designed specifically for students (typically higher education) as their primary market.  Key features include:

• Housing units / rooms (studios, shared rooms, pods, cluster flats) configured for student life (study spaces, communal amenities, furnishings, shared facilities).
• Leases tailored to academic cycles (semester, academic year), possibly more flexible than long-term leases.
• Professional management focused on student needs (social programs, maintenance, security, community).
• Proximity (or good transport access) to universities, transit, student precincts.
• High density and efficient layouts to maximise bed counts per site.
• Sometimes partnerships or leases with universities, or campus-adjacent sites.
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It is distinguished from general rental housing by its tailored design, tenancy structure, amenity mix, and operational model.

Retirement and Lifestyle Villages

Retirement villages” or “senior living / lifestyle villages” generally refers to residential communities designed for older people (often retirees or “downsizers”) that combine housing plus services, amenities, and sometimes care or support.  Key features include:

• Independent living units (villas, apartments, townhouses) tailored for older people (accessibility, lower maintenance).
• Common amenities (clubhouse, gardens, recreation, social spaces).
• Some level of services (housekeeping, security, transport, meals, social programs).
• Sometimes “continuum of care” models, where residents can move to higher care (assisted living, memory care, aged care) within or adjacent to the village.
• Financial models often include ingress / exit fees, deferred management fees (DMFs) or “deferred consideration” structures, or leasehold / strata models.
• Lifestyle villages may also target semi-retired or active seniors, offering a community, social connections, wellness, recreation, less of a “nursing home” feel, and more of a “resort / communal living” feel.

In practice, retirement villages and lifestyle villages overlap, with the differentiation often in branding, degree of service, and target demographic (active retirees vs those seeking support).

Specialist Disability Accommodation

• SDA refers to housing designed specifically for NDIS participants who have extreme functional impairment and/or very high support needs. SDA is about the “bricks and mortar” (the dwelling), not the supports (which are funded separately).
• The dwellings are required to meet certain design standards (such as accessibility, robustness, assistive technology infrastructure, spatial layout) and be approved under the NDIS SDA guidelines.
• SDA helps participants to live more independently, often enabling them to move out of aged care or unsuitable housing settings.
• Participation in SDA is voluntary (i.e., only for those whose plans include SDA funding) and requires that the dwelling be registered and approved under NDIS rules.

Community and Affordable Housing

• Community housing organisations reinvest surplus revenue (not distributed to shareholders) into maintenance, new housing, improved services.
• Many affordable housing schemes leverage government grants, subsidies, lower-interest finance, land transfers, or regulatory incentives to bridge the “funding gap” (i.e. the difference between cost of construction + ongoing operations vs what can be earned in reduced rents).
• Community housing models vary across states; some CHPs lease properties from government or receive capital or recurrent subsidies. A
• Many policy proposals suggest transferring public housing stock into CHP management to improve efficiency, innovation, and scale up community housing. 
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