Korea’s Pension Fund Commits $434 Million Scape Australia

Australia’s biggest owner-operator of student housing, Scape, has secured a $434.3 million equity commitment from South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS) for a suite of living sector investment strategies.

Scape’s partnership with the $800 billion pension fund, which was announced on Thursday, is expected to boost Scape’s ability to execute on long-term growth objectives in living sectors across Asia Pacific, the Sydney-based firm said in a statement.

The NPS’s commitment covers purpose-built student accommodation and build-to-rent projects — the latter operated under a separate management company, Rent-to-Live Co, established by Scape Australia principals Stephen Gaitanos and Craig Carracher in 2023.

The partnership is part of the relationship that was launched in 2020 with the NPS’s first investment in Scape’s PBSA Core Program, a venture that holds Australia’s largest portfolio of student accommodation.

Gaitanos said that NPS is one of the world’s leading real estate investors and they were looking forward to leverage NPS’s extensive experience and broad global insights to continue to deliver high-quality, affordable and aspirational residential-for-rent solutions in Australia and beyond.

Broader Ambitions

Portfolio manager on the NPS’s newly created real estate platform investment team Gyumin Im hailed the partnership’s bespoke structure for executing on the institution’s high-conviction ideas within the living sector.

He added: “With Scape Australia’s extensive experience and expertise, together with their long-term like-minded investors base, we believe that Scape Australia will continue to be the leading living platform in Asia at a global scale.”

The NPS set up its real estate platform investment team last year with a mandate to identify and invest in established and emerging platforms and acquire minority equity stakes in real estate investment managers.

According to media reports, the Korean investment giant has signalled a more aggressive stance recently, announcing a plan last May to boost the ratio of alternative investments in the portfolio and help the fund generate a 5.4% rate of return over the next five years.

Scape also plans to open an office in South Korea as part of the company’s broader expansion into regional residential-for-rent sectors.

Gaitanos said that establishing Scape’s South Korea office will resource their commitment with the Korean capital partners to lay strong foundations for growing across Asia.

Housing Crunch Solutions

The reports also said that news of the NPS partnership comes less than three months after Rent-to-Live (RTL) Co launched a 1,000-apartment mixed-use precinct in Sydney, aiming to invest $930 million to help ease a local housing crunch.

Backed by Dutch fund managers APG and Bouwinvest, RTL Co is developing The Timberyards in the Inner West suburb of Marrickville. In addition to living space, including about 100 affordable apartments, plans call for 3,000 sq. m. of retail and 8,000 sq. m. of public green space.

The announcement of RTL Co’s maiden project followed Scape’s closing on A$3 billion in fresh debt financing in August, with part of the offering nearly three times oversubscribed amid growing appetite for purpose-built student accommodation in the country.

Around same time, Scape and ASX-listed construction giant Lendlease received final approval for a $1.06 billion transformation of Queen Victoria Market in central Melbourne. The mixed-use project, known as Gurrowa Place, is to feature 1,100 beds for university students and 560 build-to-rent apartments — including about 80 affordable homes.

Scape owns and operates 19,000 bedrooms across 38 buildings in Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, with a development pipeline of 4,000 bedrooms across eight assets. RTL Co has more than 1,200 apartments in development in Inner Sydney.

Collectively, Scape and RTL Co manage more than A$13 billion in assets on behalf of institutional capital partners, the reports added.