Ben Cosentino is a Partner at Gilbert + Tobin, advising on the development, financing, and delivery of major infrastructure and energy projects. Prior to joining G+T, he worked as a SVP at Blackstone in Sydney, where he gained deep commercial insight into global infrastructure investment. Ben brings a unique blend of legal expertise and investor perspective to complex, high-value transactions across Australia. We asked him some questions on the living sectors investment market.

You’ve worked at the intersection of law and institutional investment, including time at Blackstone. What’s the most significant shift you’ve seen in how capital is approaching the living sectors today?

The ‘mainstreaming’ of the living sector asset class over the last decade.

As housing affordability has become a greater focus for government, shifts in policy settings have made living sector assets more attractive for both investors and residents.

In my opinion, the most pronounced shifts have occurred in the build-to-rent (BTR) space. Investors have had significant wins from policy reforms (e.g. MIT eligibility and grandfathering, accelerated capital works deductions) which have drawn capital to the sector, but residents have also benefitted from changes (e.g. rental increase restrictions) which have improved affordability and housing security.

What investment models are emerging that you believe will be most successful in attracting institutional capital into the living sectors over the next decade?

The living sector is more mature in other jurisdictions around the world, and so we can look abroad for investment models that work. The most effective investment models I’ve seen are those that can build brand loyalty with residents.

Platform recognition has always been extremely important in the aged care space (particularly post-Royal Commission), and BTR/student accommodation operators increasingly recognise that there is significant value in controlling booking and management platforms across multiple assets.

The importance of a strong operating platform will likely lead to further consolidation in the living sector over time as smaller owner/operators exit sub-scale platforms.

Legal frameworks often lag behind innovation. What legal or regulatory changes do you believe could help unlock more capital or speed up investment into sectors like housing, aged care, or student accommodation?

From a legal perspective, the main issue slowing capital deployment in the sector is regulatory uncertainty.

A nationally consistent (or at least fixed) regulatory framework – including consistent land tax, duty and resident protections – would help level the playing field against established asset classes. Also, clarifying relevant GST and FIRB definitions for commercial residential premises would eliminate some guesswork about applicable filing fees and trigger thresholds.

How is ESG or social impact being treated in deal structuring or capital deployment — are investors truly prioritising long-term impact, or is it still largely a compliance-driven exercise?

I have two thoughts on this:

1. It depends on the investor – pension/super funds are increasingly coming under pressure from their members to take ESG targets seriously, and that focus is flowing through to capital allocators and managers
2. It ultimately shouldn’t matter whether investors view compliance as a tick-box exercise or not. Government policy and enforcement should incentivise the right ESG behaviour.

If you could give one piece of advice to policymakers trying to draw in long-term capital for Australia’s housing and living infrastructure, what would it be?

Allow peak resident and investor bodies to assist in shaping policy.

Key stakeholders in the sector tend to consolidate and hone their most important policy suggestions in peak-body submissions. Allowing these bodies to come to a negotiated outcome and present combined recommendations to policy makers (to the extent possible) would help reduce policy shocks and errors affecting industry participants.

Ben is moderating a Panel at the 2025 Living Sectors Summit on ‘The investment models of tomorrow to attract institutional capital’ and Gilbert + Tobin is a valued event partner. View the brochure for details on his session and the full two-day agenda.