South Korean and local institutional investors keen to invest in Australia’s chronic housing shortage have kick-started the year with a combined $800 million in new residential development.

In a deal negotiated over Christmas Day and sealed on December 26, South Korea’s National Pension System has committed $700 million to Scape – on top of an initial $300 million it invested in 2020 – for student housing, and the developer’s first new build-to-rent asset in Sydney.