Australia doesn’t just need more housing. It needs better housing.

Build-to-Rent (BtR) is starting to gain real traction here, and it has the potential to play a meaningful role in addressing supply. But whether it actually improves the housing system will come down to one thing. Do we get the fundamentals right from the start?

Right now, the sector is building momentum. There are more than 39,000 apartments across over 100 projects in the pipeline, representing around $30 billion in capital. By 2050, BtR could grow to around 250,000 apartments, or close to 10 per cent of the market.

That scale creates a genuine opportunity. We can just deliver more stock, or we can use this moment to lift the standard of rental housing across the country.

The thing that sets BtR apart is the ownership model. These are long-term assets, held and operated over decades. That changes how people think about value.

Performance is no longer something you think about at handover. It sits at the centre of the business case.

Energy efficiency, durability and tenant experience all flow directly through to operating costs, asset performance and long-term returns. High-performing buildings can significantly less energy, with lower operating costs and stronger tenant retention.

For residents, it’s much simpler. Lower energy bills, better comfort and healthier indoor environments. That’s what better buildings look like in practice. And it is increasingly what renters expect.

There’s still a tendency to treat sustainability as a cost. In BtR, that framing doesn’t really hold up.

Buildings that are designed and built to perform well, including those with Green Star certification, are already showing lower operating costs and lower utility bills. That matters for investors, but it also matters for residents.

Affordability isn’t just about rent. It’s about what it costs to live in a home over time, and how that home actually performs.

Institutional capital is already shaping the BtR market in Australia, and those investors are focused on long-term risk and return. That’s where verified performance becomes important.

Certification like Green Star provides a level of assurance around how a building will perform over time. It supports access to sustainable finance, gives confidence in asset quality and helps future-proof investments as standards tighten.

We’ve seen this play out before. In the commercial office sector, sustainability moved from a differentiator to an expectation. The same shift is now starting to happen in residential.

The biggest opportunity in BtR is timing. Decisions made at the design and construction stage will shape how these assets perform for decades.

Once a building is delivered, it’s much harder and more expensive to change. That’s why getting the fundamentals right early matters.

That means thinking carefully about energy use, electrification, indoor environment quality and material choices from day one, not trying to retrofit those outcomes later.

BtR also has the potential to lift the quality of rental housing more broadly. At its best, it can deliver more consistent standards, better management and a stronger focus on the resident experience.

But that outcome isn’t guaranteed. It depends on the choices made now.

Australia has a real opportunity to build a BtR sector that delivers long-term value for investors and better outcomes for residents.

The question is not just how many homes we deliver, but how well those homes perform over time.

You can read more on Build to Rent in GBCA’s report – Keys to Change: Unlocking better, greener Build-to-Rent housing.

Nick Alsop is Senior Manager Market Engagement at the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA)

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