South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS) is among the latest institutional investors seeking to capitalise on Australia’s high-demand living sector, with an A$700 million (US$432.5 million) commitment to Scape Australia’s Scape Core Fund (SCF), which will invest in purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) and build-to-rent (BTR) projects.

The core, core-plus open-end fund will focus on stabilised or stabilising assets in Australia’s six tier 1 education cities — Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra and Adelaide. It has a fundraising goal of A$6 billion (US$3.7 billion).

SCF represents a conversion of Scape Australia’s flagship purpose-built student accommodation vehicle into an open-end fund with a 16,000-bed portfolio across 33 operational assets, according to Mingtiandi. As part of the conversion, SCF has acquired an A$1.9 billion (US$1.2 billion) portfolio of eight assets fresh off an April 2024 develop-to-core joint venture of A$1