AustralianSuper announces $A1.1bn investment into UK living

London, 20 October 2025

• The platform aims to become one of the top five operators of rental homes in the UK within five years
• Fund sets out a vision to provide market-leading customer focused service, access to quality homes that support education, innovation and working lives
• The platform marks a major milestone in AustralianSuper’s longstanding commitment to the UK as it remains on track to grow its UK portfolio to £18 billion by 2030
• The announcement aligns with a major Australian Superannuation Mission to the UK, held on 20/21 October

AustralianSuper, Australia’s largest superannuation fund, has today announced the creation of a new UK Living platform, with an initial £500 million (A$1.1 billion) of investment.

The new platform will target investments in the UK living sector, with a strong pipeline of opportunities and the ambition to deploy funds at scale over the next 12 months. The platform aims to become one of the top five operators of rental homes in the UK within five years.

The platform seeks to create institutional-grade living accommodation encompassing student, co-living and residential homes, and builds on the Fund’s experience investing in housing globally. It aims to deliver an exemplary customer experience that responds to today’s demand trends for flexible, mixed living communities, twinned with greater connectivity between higher education, innovation, and industry.

The platform’s first investment is a student housing development in Bristol, with contractors on site and a target completion in 2027. The platform is actively assessing opportunities across the UK, with a disciplined focus on quality locations in high-demand urban centres and anchored by top research-led universities and high growth industries.

The announcement comes as AustralianSuper joins with the UK Government and other institutional investors, superannuation funds and policy makers at the upcoming Australian Superannuation Misson to the UK on 20/21 October. This Mission aims to foster innovation, identify barriers to investment, drive infrastructure and critical nation-building investments into the UK, and strengthen relationships between Australian superannuation funds and UK institutional investors and policy makers.

Damian Moloney, Deputy Chief Investment Officer at AustralianSuper, said: “Today’s announcement demonstrates the continued attractiveness of the UK as a global investment destination, with AustralianSuper on track to deploy more than £8 billion of new capital into the country by 2030.

“With ambitious plans to scale, our new living sector platform is a clear demonstration of the Fund’s mature, international investment capabilities and complements our existing sectoral exposure across AustralianSuper’s global Real Assets portfolio.

“Establishing this platform is a significant milestone for AustralianSuper. It’s a great example of the ways the Fund can contribute to economic growth in the UK, while generating returns for our 3.5 million members.”

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said: “This is about getting Britain building again – bringing our savings, our investors and our regions together to deliver the homes, infrastructure and industries that will drive growth and create good jobs in every corner of the country – building a stronger economy that works for, and rewards, working people.”

Platform Leadership

The Fund has selected a highly experienced senior team to lead the new business, headed up by CEO Tim Butler, previously founder and co-investor of Student Roost and one of the founding shareholders and main board director of Unite Group plc. As one of the most experienced leaders in creating and managing rented living accommodation, Tim will provide executive oversight and strategic direction for the platform as it grows.

Tailwinds for UK Living sector

The Fund’s decision to launch a UK Living platform is underpinned by several key fundamentals that the Fund believes contribute to an attractive investment opportunity:

• The UK is a favoured destination for living sector investment. Over 80% of investors plan to increase their allocation based on a survey of respondents managing over €1.4 trillion in global real assets¹
• Despite strong interest in the sector, there is still significant room for institutional investors in the £1.6 trillion UK Private Rented Sector: only 2% of assets are institutionally owned, with the remaining 98% owned by private Buy to Let investors²
• The UK is facing a persistent supply-demand imbalance in housing, with constraints having a significant impact on real consumer costs. As of 2025, average UK rents have risen by 8.7% year-on-year³
• The UK population is projected to reach 72.5 million by mid-2032⁴, adding further demand for housing
• A record number of UK university applicants in 2025, up 1.3% compared to 2024⁵, with a projected student bed deficit of over 62,000 by 2026⁶
• Long term, international student undergraduate applications have been increasing, most recently seeing a 2.7% rise from 2024 to 2025⁷, adding further demand

Transaction lead, Vicky Stanley, Senior Investment Director, Real Assets at AustralianSuper said: “We have launched our own UK living platform in order to deliver the highest standards for quality customer service, safety and sustainability.

“As a long-term investor, AustralianSuper believes there are attractive fundamentals underpinning the UK living market that position it well for continued expansion and investment. These include a persistent demand-supply imbalance, and the UK’s world-leading higher education sector, which the Fund expects to drive continued demand over the medium to long term.”

The new platform will leverage AustralianSuper’s extensive real estate capabilities and experience gained from major projects across Australia, the UK and Europe.

The Fund’s global portfolio includes a cornerstone investment in specialist Australian housing developer Assemble. The Fund has committed more than A$630 million to housing projects through Assemble, with 3,000 homes to be delivered by 2030, 370 of which are already complete. In the UK and Europe, the Fund's portfolio features significant urban regeneration sites like the King's Cross Estate and the Canada Water Masterplan in London.

AustralianSuper’s long-term commitment to the UK

AustralianSuper is currently the 17th largest pension fund in the world by total assets and the fastest growing among the top 20⁸. The Fund is forecast to exceed £260 billion (A$500 billion) of assets under management within the next five years and expects to deploy almost 70% of these new inflows into global markets.

Since establishing its London office in 2016, the Fund has significantly expanded its UK presence, now employing 189 people at its King’s Cross base. Today, the Fund’s investment capability spans the full spectrum of public and private markets, including real assets, private credit, fixed income, cash, and listed equities. As at 30 June 2025, the Fund has £11 billion invested in the UK and remains on track to raise this to £18 billion by 2030.

By 2030, the Fund expects 70% of all member assets to be internally managed, with more than 300 employed in the London office; by 2035 the Fund expects to manage £250 billion of member assets from its London office.