Earlier this month, during PERE week, we hosted our APAC Living Sector Leaders Dinner, bringing together senior clients and colleagues from across the globe to focus on one of real estate’s fastest growing and most strategically important sectors.
It was an apt time to bring people together, off the back of a record $17.5bn invested into APAC Living in 2025, and residential sectors continuing to top investor selections for new institutional allocations.
Panel discussion: investor and operator perspectives on the year ahead
The evening’s panel discussion emphasised the strength of the fundamental screen for APAC Living and the potential for greater institutional penetration. Speakers from Brookfield, Investa and Centurion pointed to persistent supply shortages, strong rental fundamentals and growing institutional interest as key attractions. The opportunity for scale in Australia and Japan also stood out.
At the same time, they noted that often in APAC you need to ‘build rather than buy’ and feasibility and construction costs remain challenging. Operating complexity and local market dynamics remain critical differentiators. There was clear consensus that while the opportunity set across APAC Living is broadening, investors will need strong local relationships and disciplined execution to convert thematic conviction into scalable returns.
Signals from Europe
The institutionalisation of Europe’s Living sector is further along than APAC and provides useful signals for the more emergent region, particularly given the global nature of the capital investing in Living.
James Young, President, Markets – APAC & EMEA, shared perspectives from Cushman & Wakefield’s EMEA Living platform and recent investor survey. The presentation underscored how Living continues to gain share within institutional portfolios, with EMEA Living investment volumes showing at $27 billion, growing cross-border activity, a 26% share of the wider market, and 24% year-on-year growth.
The message from investors surveyed is clear: Living’s appeal continues to be led by the stability of returns and demographic tailwinds. Across the survey results presented, return resilience and population growth stood out as the dominant reasons for allocating to the sector, while Private rental / Build-to-rent and PBSA remain the most preferred subsectors today. At the same time, investors are increasingly looking to broaden exposure over the next one to three years into adjacent segments including Affordable housing, Co-living and Senior living.
The survey also pointed to improving pricing sentiment, even as execution challenges remain. Yield expectations over the next 12 months were broadly stable to modestly positive, while the biggest constraints identified were limited investment opportunities, mismatches between buyer and seller expectations, and political or regulatory risk.
APAC Living’s accelerating growth and diverse potential, with stronger tailwinds
Building on the global context, Josh Rose-Nokes, Director, Living Research, APAC and Louise Burke, Director, Living Capital Markets, Australia, reflected on the building tailwinds for APAC Living.
The capital markets environment for Core and Core Plus fundraising has improved significantly, with raising for those strategies targeting APAC Living up 52% y/y in 2025. This, alongside a more supportive interest rate environment in most APAC markets will help investment volumes continue to build on the record 2025.
The presentation assessed a series of market and subsector combinations through the lens of income profile, liquidity and scalability, policy and structural tailwinds, and execution risk. This highlighted breadth of opportunity available across the region, suiting differing risk appetites and expertise.
Perhaps the key takeaways that cut across all markets are that; supply is far short of demand, leading to very stretched housing affordability; policy toward attracting global talent (student and professionals) is favourable and in some cases very much so, particularly relative to the US and EMEA; and capital deployment is accelerating and greater volumes are limited by investable opportunities not appetite.
Looking ahead
As investor appetite for Living continues to deepen globally, APAC is becoming a more important part of the picture. From mature multifamily markets in Japan to fast-evolving PBSA and co-living opportunities elsewhere in the region, the opportunity set is broad. Sharp market intelligence, clear comparative frameworks and joined-up capital markets insight will enable investors to calibrate for successful execution and scalability.
If you would like to explore these themes further, I invite you to visit our Future of Living hub. Alternatively, please reach out to me, or Conal Newland, to continue the conversation.
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