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Why Living? Why Now?

At a time when investors are seeking stable income streams amid economic and geopolitical uncertainty, the living sector currently benefits from a combination of structural demand growth stemming from fundamental housing needs, constrained supply and operational value-creation opportunities. Together, these factors reinforce the sector’s strategic relevance within long-term APAC real estate allocations.

Key Investment Takeaways

1) Structural demand is no longer the differentiator, execution is.

Demographic tailwinds and policy reforms are expanding opportunities, but returns will hinge on entry, execution and scale.

2) There is no single APAC living strategy.

Stabilised acquisitions dominate Japan multifamily, while Australia and Korea living offer development and conversion opportunities. Singapore coliving and Hong Kong PBSA remain largely conversion-led.

3) Operational capability and scale are becoming core sources of alpha.

Revenue management, product positioning, active asset management and local expertise are increasingly driving performance, while regional platforms enhance sourcing, standardise design and procurement, optimise pricing and operations, and create multiple capital recycling and exit pathways.

Living has shown resilience across market cycles with robust rental growth

APAC living was the only major real estate sector to record investment volume growth during both the COVID-19 period and the global rate-hiking cycle, with growth of 51% and 18%, respectively.

In 2025, living investment volumes rose 38% year-on-year to US$13.8 billion. Rental growth has consistently outpaced both inflation and interest rates (Figure 1). 

^{Note: Hong Kong PBSA (2023-2025) and Seoul Coliving (2024-2025) reflect shorter timeframes due to limited historical data availability; Singapore coliving figures are proxied using URA rental indices for non-landed private residential property in the Core Central Region and Rest of Central Region; Interest and inflation figures are based on annual averages across the respective time periods.}

The next phase of APAC living is about how investors enter, operate and scale

As the structural case for APAC living sector becomes more established, the focus is increasingly shifting towards how returns are delivered, through entry strategy, active asset management and cost discipline.

Once dominated by Japan multifamily, the APAC living opportunity set has expanded across markets and living segments. While demand remains underpinned by structural drivers, each market-subsector follows a different institutionalisation path, offering distinct entry strategies and value-creation opportunities (Figure 2).