Scape’s Stephen Gaitanos to Spotlight Student Housing and More at Singapore Forum

With average rents for student housing in Sydney up 50 percent since 2018, according to Knight Frank, the boss of Asia Pacific’s biggest student accommodation provider will deliver an insider’s view of the high-growth sector at the Mingtiandi Singapore Forum on 13 May.

Stephen Gaitanos, founder, group CEO and managing director of Sydney-based Scape, will sit down with Mingtiandi founder Michael Cole for a spotlight interview that will also cover the future of Australia’s residential market and how investors can benefit while helping to address the country’s housing challenges.

The interview is part of a series of expert-led talks at the full-day event, which is sponsored by Yardi and takes place at the Conrad Centennial Hotel in Singapore.

More than 45 speakers are due to take the stage at the event, with over 250 executives expected to attend. Tickets to the forum are still available at the link above.

Building Up Beds

Scape is the largest residential-for-rent owner and operator in Australia, managing more than 39 operational assets (19,000 beds), with eight purpose-built student housing and urban living assets (4,000 beds) under development. The private group employs 900 staff and has delivered 33 development projects since 2015.

As CEO of Scape, Gaitanos is responsible for the group’s platform in Australia, a position he has held since November 2013. He is a founding principal of Telopea Capital Partners and previously held real estate investing and corporate finance positions with Morgan Stanley Real Estate, Merrill Lynch and Macquarie Bank.

Earlier this year, Scape converted its flagship purpose-built student accommodation vehicle into a A$6 billion ($3.8 billion) open-ended core fund, drawing A$1 billion in additional funding from existing backers — including Dutch fund managers APG and Bouwinvest, South Korea’s National Pension Service and Canadian heavyweight CDPQ — as well as new investor UBS Asset Management. This week the fund welcomed yet another capital partner, with CBRE IM making an investment through its indirect private real estate strategy.

Rent-to-Live Co, a build-to-rent venture founded by Scape principals Gaitanos and Craig Carracher and backed by APG and Bouwinvest, last year launched The Timberyards, a 1,000-apartment mixed-use precinct in Sydney, aiming to invest A$1.5 billion to help ease a local housing crunch.

Scape Australia and its group companies collectively have more than A$13 billion in assets under management on behalf of global institutional capital partners.

Experts Ready to Weigh In

Among the Singapore Forum’s other sessions, a keynote panel will feature Oxford Properties’ Asia Pacific head Alessandro Fiascaris, George Agethen of CDPQ, Knight Frank Singapore chief executive Galven Tan and Hilton Asia Pacific president Alan Watts for a look at the biggest challenges facing the real estate sector in the year of trade wars and tariffs.

Also on the schedule are panels on student housing, hospitality, residential, APAC industrial and infrastructure, Singapore’s role as a global capital hub and India investment opportunities.

Mingtiandi will interview top industry executives on stage, including a spotlight session with Nicholas Bischoff, chief executive of Stonepeak-backed logistics specialist Equalbase, who will be appearing together with Jon Sim, investment director of the company’s Northmod fund management affiliate.

Another interview will feature Bart Price, the newly minted CEO of Vita Partners Real Assets, a life sciences real estate joint venture between Warburg Pincus and Lendlease. Joining Price will be Warburg Pincus principal Tag Yuxiang, who developed the Vita Partners venture from its early stages, and CBRE consultant Rimon Ambarchi, who advised the JV on its purchase of a $1.2 billion Singapore portfolio from a Blackstone partnership late last year.

Full details of the event are available on Mingtiandi here.