Published 24 June 2026
Australia's build-to-rent sector is expanding quickly, with market-source estimates counting 12,000 operational apartments as at October 2025 and 4,660 units delivered in 2024 alone. The national pipeline is estimated at between 51,000 and 63,500 apartments, depending on which development stages are counted. Victoria holds the largest share of total stock, and New South Wales recorded the largest pipeline increase of any state over the past 12 months.
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Is Australia on track to build 1.2 million homes by June 2029?Australia has completed 307,635 homes in the first seven quarters of the National Housing Accord, leaving the country 112,365 homes behind the pace needed to reach 1.2 million by June 2029. Australia…Section 01 · Definitions
What is build-to-rent in Australia?
Build-to-rent is a model where an entire apartment building is constructed specifically for long-term rental, owned by a single entity, and professionally managed as one asset.
For Commonwealth tax purposes, build-to-rent is defined by ownership structure. Under Commonwealth tax legislation that commenced on 1 January 2025, a development must meet five conditions to qualify:
- At least 50 dwellings
- All dwellings and common areas owned by a single entity
- Dwellings available for residential leasing to the public
- At least 10% of dwellings designated as affordable dwellings
- The development must enter a 15-year build-to-rent compliance period
| How does build-to-rent differ from build-to-sell? | ||
|---|---|---|
| Feature | Build-to-rent | Build-to-sell |
| Ownership after completion | Single entity retains ownership of all dwellings | Individual apartments sold to separate buyers |
| Management | Professionally managed; often with on-site staff and shared services | Strata or owner-occupier managed after sale |
| Tenure | Rental only; long-term leases offered | Owner-occupied or privately rented after sale |
| Federal tax threshold | 50+ dwellings, single ownership, 10% affordable, 15-year compliance period | No equivalent definition in Commonwealth BTR legislation |
| Subdivision | Not permitted for 15 years in most NSW zones | Strata title issued to each purchaser |
Section 02 · Pipeline size
How many build-to-rent apartments are in Australia's pipeline?
Australia's build-to-rent pipeline is growing, but the total depends on whether early-stage, approved, under-construction and operational projects are counted together.
Published pipeline estimates range from 51,000 to 63,500 apartments, depending on which development stages are included and when each count was taken. These figures are market-source estimates and are not directly comparable.
Source · Property Council of Australia — Build-to-rent hits $40bn as Sydney drives next phase of growth · from www.propertycouncil.com.au
Property Council of Australia / BDO: 51,000 apartments, May 2026
The national BTR pipeline reached 51,000 apartments worth $40.1 billion in May 2026, up from 39,300 apartments and $30.1 billion a year earlier. This is the most recent of the three pipeline readings and the only one with a 2026 reference date. It does not include a national stage-by-stage breakdown.
Knight Frank: nearly 60,000 units, Q4 2024
As of Q4 2024, 19,308 units had been delivered or were under construction since 2018, with a further 40,191 units planned, for a combined total of just under 60,000 units. The planned category includes early-concept projects not yet DA-approved, which helps explain why this total is higher than counts limited to approved or construction-ready projects.
JLL: 63,500 units across four reported stages, October 2025
JLL's October 2025 figures listed 12,000 operational units, 3,600 under construction, 23,600 approved and 24,300 in planning. Together, these categories total 63,500 units.
JLL Australia, Australia's Living Sector: Growth, Resilience and Capital Attraction, October 2025. Market-source data; not official government statistics.
Of the 63,500 units counted across the four stages, 15,600 were operational or under construction. The remaining 47,900 units were approved but not yet started or still in planning.
The 23,600 approved-but-not-started units have cleared the planning stage, but construction has not yet begun. The 24,300 units still in planning had not yet reached approval or construction. Together, these two groups account for three in every four units in JLL's count.
Section 03 · Deliveries and growth
How fast is build-to-rent growing in Australia?
The national BTR pipeline grew from approximately 15,000 units across 40 projects in 2021 to between 51,000 and 63,500 units by 2025–26, depending on the source. Annual deliveries reached a record 4,660 units in 2024, with 6,000 forecast for 2025.
Build-to-rent deliveries reached 4,660 units in 2024
Knight Frank records the following annual BTR delivery figures for Australia:
- 4,660 units delivered across 18 schemes in 2024, the highest annual figure recorded to that date
- Four schemes opened in the first half of 2025, adding 1,298 units before mid-year
- Full-year 2025 forecast: 6,000 units, up 28.8% on the 2024 actual
- Full-year 2026 forecast: around 4,000 units, down approximately 33% from the 2025 forecast
Knight Frank forecasts a delivery dip in 2026, with full-year completions expected to fall from 6,000 units in 2025 to around 4,000 units in 2026. At 4,000 units, 2026 deliveries would sit about 14% below the 2024 actual, despite a pipeline that has grown in total unit count.
Section 04 · Locations
Where is build-to-rent being built in Australia?
Victoria held the largest share of the national BTR pipeline at Q4 2024, with 25,538 units in total. New South Wales had overtaken Queensland for second place at Q4 2024, recording 15,089 units against Queensland's 14,390. The remaining states each had fewer than 2,000 units: ACT (1,723), WA (1,568) and SA (1,191).
Melbourne also had the most completed BTR deliveries nationally by mid-2025, while Brisbane recorded two openings in the first half of 2025. NSW planning zone changes that took effect in 2023 permit BTR wherever residential flat buildings or shop-top housing are allowed. Knight Frank forecasts Sydney will account for a larger share of new completions from 2025 onward, after those planning changes. At project level, delivery has concentrated in inner-city and near-CBD precincts, including Brunswick, Footscray, Newstead, Parramatta and Docklands.
Section 05 · Investors and developers
Who is building build-to-rent projects in Australia?
Offshore institutional capital accounted for approximately 57% of the national BTR pipeline in 2021, according to CBRE's February 2021 pipeline report. By 2024–25, project examples showed a broader mix of capital sources, including:
- Joint ventures between Australian listed developers and offshore institutional investors
- Domestic superannuation-aligned investors
- Offshore pension funds from North America, Europe and Asia
- Specialist living-sector platforms backed by large institutional capital pools
| Project and location | Units | Status | Capital structure |
|---|---|---|---|
| LIV Albert Fields — Brunswick, VIC | 498 | Under construction | Mirvac JV with CEFC and Mitsubishi Estate |
| Indi Footscray — Footscray, VIC | 702 | Under construction | Investa JV with Oxford Properties |
| Home Parramatta — Parramatta, NSW | 435 | Under construction | GIC |
| Melbourne Quarter — Docklands, VIC | 797 | Under construction | Lendlease JV with Daiwa House |
| 13–17 Cordelia St & 28 Robertson St — South Brisbane & Fortitude Valley, QLD | 354 | Sold | Hines JV with Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (acquired from ADCO Constructions) |
Source · Knight Frank, Australia Build to Rent Update Q3 2025. Selected examples only; not a complete national ownership register.
Other capital activity recorded in 2024–25 included:
- Pembroke entering the sector through a site purchase in Fitzroy
- Scape securing a $700 million equity commitment from South Korea's National Pension Service
- Australian Ethical backing Cedar Pacific's Quay Street project in Brisbane, alongside Grosvenor, Moata Ventures and Sumitomo Forestry
Section 06 · Policy settings
Tax and planning settings for build-to-rent in Australia
A federal tax framework took effect on 1 January 2025, offering two concessions to qualifying BTR developments:
- A capital works deduction of 4%, up from the standard 2.5%
- A managed investment trust withholding tax rate of 15% for eligible foreign investors from information-exchange countries, down from 30%
NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia each have published BTR land-tax concessions. All four use land-tax relief as their primary state-level instrument. The federal concessions are designed to reduce tax costs for qualifying projects and eligible investors, while state concessions reduce the taxable land value or site value used to calculate land tax for qualifying developments. No official national dataset shows how many projects have claimed these concessions or how many state tax reliefs have been granted.
Federal tax concessions
Commonwealth · From 1 January 2025
- 4% capital works deduction (up from 2.5%)
- 15% MIT withholding tax for eligible foreign investors (down from 30%)
- Requires 50+ dwellings, single ownership
- Requires 10% affordable dwellings over 15 years
- Affordable dwellings capped at 74.9% of market rent
NSW concessions
New South Wales
- 50% reduction in land value for land tax
- Exemptions from surcharge purchaser duty and surcharge land tax
- BTR permissible in residential flat building and shop-top housing zones
- State-significant development pathway for larger schemes
- No subdivision for 15 years in most relevant zones
VIC concessions
Victoria
- Land tax calculated on 50% of taxable land value
- Exemption from absentee owner surcharge
- Benefits available for up to 30 years
QLD concessions
Queensland
- 50% discount on taxable value for land tax
- Foreign surcharge land tax does not apply
- Additional foreign acquirer duty concession (can reduce to nil)
- Available for up to 20 years or until 30 June 2050
SA concession
South Australia
- 50% reduction in site value for eligible BTR land from 2023–24 up to and including 2039–40
Source: Treasury Laws Amendment (Responsible Buy Now Pay Later and Other Measures) Act 2024, Schedule 1; Australian Taxation Office; Revenue NSW; State Revenue Office of Victoria; Queensland Revenue Office; RevenueSA; NSW Planning.
Section 07 · Rental supply
How does build-to-rent contribute to Australia's rental supply?
The 2021 Census recorded that 30.6% of occupied private dwellings were rented, across 10.85 million private dwellings nationally. Annual rent growth was 3.5% in the year to April 2026, down from 3.7% in March 2026. For longer-term context, ABS reported annual rent growth of 7.6% in the September quarter of 2023.
BTR's structural contribution to rental supply is that dwellings remain in the rental pool under single ownership rather than being sold individually. This is one reason BTR is treated separately in federal and state policy settings. Treasury's National Housing Accord targets 1.2 million new homes over five years from mid-2024. The ABS does not identify build-to-rent as a separate category in its tenure classifications, so BTR's share of rental stock or its effect on vacancy rates cannot be stated from official data.
References
- Australian Taxation Office — Build to rent development tax incentives · ato.gov.au
- Treasury Laws Amendment (Responsible Buy Now Pay Later and Other Measures) Act 2024 · legislation.gov.au
- National Housing Accord · treasury.gov.au
- ABS Consumer Price Index, Australia (latest release, Cat. 6401.0) · Australian Bureau of Statistics
- Australian Bureau of Statistics — Consumer Price Index, Australia, September Quarter 2023 · Australian Bureau of Statistics
- Australian Bureau of Statistics — Housing: Census, 2021 · Australian Bureau of Statistics
- NSW Planning — Build-to-rent housing · planning.nsw.gov.au
- Revenue NSW — Build to rent ruling G014v2 · revenue.nsw.gov.au
- State Revenue Office of Victoria — Discount for build-to-rent developments · sro.vic.gov.au
- Queensland Revenue Office — Build-to-rent concessions · qro.qld.gov.au
- RevenueSA — Tax concessions to promote new housing opportunities · revenuesa.sa.gov.au
- BDO — 2026 Build to Rent report: A changing of the guard in Australia's living sector · bdo.com.au
- Property Council of Australia — Build-to-rent hits $40bn as Sydney drives next phase of growth · propertycouncil.com.au
- Knight Frank — Australian Build to Rent Update Q4 2024 · content.knightfrank.com
- Knight Frank — Australian Build to Rent Update Q3 2025 · content.knightfrank.com
- JLL — Australia's Living Sector: Growth, Resilience and Capital Attraction (October 2025) · jll.com
- CBRE — Australia ViewPoint: Build-to-Rent Development Pipeline 2021 · cbre.com.au
