Frasers Selling Brisbane BTR Project to Barings-Aware Platform for Reported $202M

Singapore’s Frasers Property has agreed to sell a nearly completed build-to-rent project in Brisbane to a vehicle set up by US investment manager Barings and Australia’s third-biggest superannuation fund for a reported A$285 million ($202 million), according to market sources, ending a year-long process.

Barings and Aware Super are buying the project through the WeAreLiving platform which they had announced in November, with the deal for the 366-unit Brunswick & Co development near Brisbane’s business district in Fortitude Valley having been the subject of rumours since early last year.

The Brisbane transaction was agreed to within days of WeAreLiving opening a 285-unit development in Melbourne, with Alex Misev, head of property at Aware Super, pointing to the opportunity to add to Australia’s housing supply while achieving steady income. 

“Build‑to‑rent allows us to invest with a long‑term lens to deliver secure, high‑quality rental homes in locations where Australians want to live, while generating sustainable returns for our members,” Misev said in a statement announcing the Melbourne project.

Setting a Benchmark

Located about 20 minutes by train from Brisbane’s city centre, Frasers had begun construction of the 25-storey Brunswick & Co project in May 2022. The project includes a pool, dog park, work spaces, a cinema room, and fitness facilities in its 1,900 square metres (20,500 square feet) of amenities.

The Australian newspaper and other media reported the transaction at A$285 million, with analysts indicating a yield of more than 4.5 percent on the deal.

Frasers Property is in a quiet period before an earnings announcement in May and declined to provide any comment, but its website has a page that states that “WeAreLiving is the new owner of Brunswick & Co.”Officials at Aware Super and Barings declined to comment on the Brisbane deal. 

With more investment managers having established stabilised portfolios of BTR homes in the past two years, market analysts predict that completion of the Brunswick & Co transaction will set a benchmark for asset values in Australia’s BTR sector. 

2,000-Unit Pipeline

With a pipeline of more than 2,000 dwellings in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra, WeAreLiving will open its 433-unit Queens BTR project in Melbourne next week, with Brunswick & Co. next in line, according to a market source.

The Preston project, a 37-minute train ride from Southern Cross Station in central Melbourne, offers studios to three-bedroomed townhouses for between A$545 and A$1,390 per week and the companies said they are seeing  “strong demand across all unit types.” Seventy-five units are fully furnished, while all residences come with refrigerator, washer/dryer and private balconies or terraces. 

Under the WeAreLiving partnership, Aware Super provides the capital, while Barings handles development management and investment strategy. 

Aware Super, which manages A$210 billion in assets, has stepped up both its domestic and overseas real estate investments in recent months to boost government-mandated returns for its 1.2 million members. The fund, which manages A$10 billion in real estate assets, has been investing in the Australian BTR sector for nearly nine years 

Fast Growing Sector

Australia’s BTR market had strong growth in 2025 with MSCI data showing transactions involving income-earning residential properties more than doubled to A$8.2 billion, while US-based real estate research firm Franklin Street estimates 30,000 units are being built, which would double current capacity in the sector.

CBRE, which is managing the Brunswick & Co sale, predicts BTR developments will account for 22 percent of Australia’s new apartments by 2029, about 11,000 units a year.

With more trades of leased up properties taking place, more investors are seeing exit opportunities, with Macquarie Asset Management-backed Local:Residential acquiring a 355-apartment Melbourne project in February as it continues to scale up its platform.

Canadian pension fund OMERS-backed Oxford Properties is exploring a partial or full sale of its Australia build-to-rent platform Indi, in a deal that could value the business at A$1.5 billion, The Australian newspaper reported earlier this month.