Build-to-rent: stimulating recovery, ensuring resilience

The change our cities need

Build-to-rent (BTR) helps drive economic productivity, and with the right government intervention, could not only play a key role in Australia’s economic recovery from COVID-19, but also ensure the future liveability and resilience of our cities.

Government stimulus is key and can unlock substantial private sector investment in housing construction. This insight, co-written with Urbis, outlines the simple steps that will both accelerate the BTR sector and help safeguard a sizeable portion of the 750,000 jobs that rely on housing construction in Australia.

Why the BTR opportunity is vital right now:

• More construction jobs, faster – construction will play a crucial role in driving Australia's recovery from the COVID-19 recession. BTR allows construction to commence much more quickly than other sectors, driving job growth and enabling a faster bounce-back for the industry.
• Housing demand remains a critical issue – even in this economic downturn, there is still a considerable demand and supply gap for more diverse housing options in Australia.
• Future-proofing Australia to thrive going forward – COVID-19 has been an unprecedented event on a global scale. Australia has led both the health and economic recovery so far, and has an opportunity to use this to attract talent and investment. BTR can help facilitate and manage this opportunity in the short, medium and longer term. 

Ensuring future liveability and long-term resilience for Australia:

The time to act on enabling the BTR sector in Australia is now. The steps taken by NSW are encouraging and we support all levels of government to come together to unlock the opportunities BTR presents to both the Australian economy and our future cities.

Allens and Urbis

Allens and Urbis have been partnering on BTR content for the past few years. Bringing together their expertise of legal, economics and planning, combined with their strong advocacy for BTR in our cities.