APAC living sector investment near-triples to US$21 billion

This is for tracked investment volumes from 2016 to 2025.

Asia-Pacific's living sectors are rapidly evolving from a niche investment strategy into a core component of institutional real estate portfolios, supported by resilient demand, improving market maturity and growing cross-border investment, according to Knight Frank.

In its latest Asia-Pacific Living Sectors Hotspots Report, Knight Frank said the region's living sectors - spanning multifamily housing, build-to-rent (BTR), purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA), co-living and seniors housing - are increasingly being viewed as long-duration, income-generating assets amid heightened macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty.

Knight Frank noted that investment volumes in Asia-Pacific living assets nearly tripled between 2016 and 2025 to reach US$21 billion. Activity accelerated sharply in 2025, with investment volumes rising 49% year-on-year as financing conditions improved and stronger cross-border participation helped support pricing discovery. While investment volumes in the first half of 2026 were about 10% lower than the same period a year earlier, the consultancy expects transaction momentum to strengthen through the remainder of the year.

According to Knight Frank, investors are increasingly attracted to the sector's defensive characteristics, underpinned by needs-based demand drivers including urbanisation, demographic change and housing affordability pressures. The firm said investment in living assets has consistently exceeded pre-2018 levels since 2019, reflecting stronger investor confidence and improved underwriting transparency.

The report also highlighted a broadening of investment opportunities beyond Japan, historically the dominant market for the asset class. Japan's share of regional living sector transactions declined from around 70% historically to 43% in 2025, as capital was deployed more widely across Asia-Pacific.

Knight Frank said investors are also shifting away from treating individual living sectors as standalone investments, instead building integrated operating platforms across multifamily housing, PBSA, BTR, co-living and seniors housing to capture operational efficiencies and deploy capital more effectively.

Despite Asia-Pacific accounting for around 60% of the world's population, the region attracted just 12% of global funds allocated to living sectors in 2025, suggesting significant room for further institutional investment. Knight Frank said the varying maturity of markets across the region presents opportunities for investors to benefit from yield compression as sectors develop and institutional participation increases.

The consultancy added that fundraising for Asia-Pacific-focused real estate funds fell 5.9% in 2025, according to Preqin data, but capital specifically targeting the region's living sectors increased 12.2%, underscoring continued investor appetite for the asset class.

Looking ahead, Knight Frank expects Asia-Pacific's living sectors to play an increasingly important role in global real estate portfolios, supported by stable income, long-term demographic trends and the continued institutionalisation of the market, although success will depend on careful market selection, strong local partnerships and operational expertise.