A report by consultancy firm Urbis shows that the construction of build-to-rent apartments could help drive our Covid recovery while also solving several lingering problems within our cities.

If 10,000 build-to-rent apartments were delivered over a period of five years, this would represent a $2.7 billion investment that would deliver 3,500 jobs per year from construction alone.

If we scale that up to 50,000 apartments over five years, it would support 19,000 jobs per year; equivalent to one-third of the current pipeline for inner-city apartments on the entire east coast.

Urbis director Mark Dawson points out that the government adopting build-to-rent projects would solve several issues.

Firstly, it’s a way for the government to stimulate the construction industry and safeguard construction jobs. Secondly, it would help solve housing supply issues and help provide affordable housing for those who need it – not all build-to-rent needs to be affordable housing, but it has its place. And thirdly, in the long-term, it will enable better labour mobility, which will speed up the recovery.

Build-to-rent is currently being adopted in NSW, where there are a variety of tax reductions and incentives in place to encourage adoption. And Urbis believes that similar policies should be adopted around the nation.