If you’ve been tracking what we’ve been doing over at FM Media over the last few months, you’ll notice an undeniable slant on the living sector.
And with good reason. The living sector in Australia is undergoing a period of rapid transformation, prodded by a mix of regulatory, tax and interest rate changes, which have meant that while some investors have retreated from the market, others – especially institutional investors – are eyeing emerging asset classes.
It includes the likes of Mirvac, Greystar and Frasers pouring in significant resources into developing their build-to-rent portfolio nationally. As we’ve written previously here, the national pipeline of build-to-rent apartments (operating, under construction or in planning) has increased from 39,300 in Q2 2025 to 51,000 in Q1 2026. The sector value has increased from $30.1 billion to $40.1 billion over that same period.
Then there’s the purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) sector, which has also attracted a lot of attention from institutions such as Greystar, Mapletree and M&G. The country had 750,000 international students in early 2026, and nearly one in three university students is an international student. Australia has potential excess demand of approximately 185,000 student accommodation rooms. As we’ve outlined here, PBSA penetration sits at seven percent, or around one student accommodation bed for every 15 university students. Even with around 34,000 beds potentially added over 2026 through to 2029, that rate would increase to only approximately nine percent.
With the aim of moving the conversation forward in the living sectors space, FuturePlace – an Australian B2B media, events and advisory platform – will hold the third edition of its Living Sectors Summit on 11-12 November at the ICC, Sydney.
FM Media is proud to announce that it has partnered with FuturePlace as the Media Partner for this event.
FuturePlace will also be the Supporting Partner on FM Media’s last quarterly print edition for this year, due out in November, which is themed around build-to-rent – we’ll have more to share about that soon.
“We’re delighted to partner with FM Media on its November edition, which will place build-to-rent and the wider living sectors firmly in focus,” says portfolio director for the Real Estate Asset Class Division at FuturePlace, Fergus Cunningham.
“Facilities management plays a critical role in how these assets operate and ultimately perform over the long term, making this an important and highly relevant partnership for the Living Sectors Summit.”
The event will assemble institutional investors, super funds, government, developers, operators and housing providers to understand how housing is funded, approved, delivered and operated at scale across build-to-rent, PBSA, co-living, retirement living, land lease communities, and social and affordable housing.
FuturePlace says the event is structured to connect the capital, policy, planning, development and operational decisions “required to deliver more housing and create investable, scalable housing platforms”.
There are expected to be over 75 speakers at this year’s Living Sectors Summit, including two international keynote speakers – Dan Batterton, head of Housing at Legal & General in the UK and Johnny Caddick, managing director at Moda Living in the UK.
Apart from the keynote presentations, there will also be breakout sessions and intimate roundtable discussions across the two days.
With a wide range of guest speakers and discussion topics, if you’re following the living sector as closely as we are, this is a summit you need to attend.
To register for the event, click here or to learn more about the Summit visit livingsectorssummit.com
