The Living Co has acquired an eight-storey student accommodation building at 15-25 Regent Street in Chippendale for $72 million, adding 165 beds to its Scape Australia portfolio at roughly $440,000 per bed.

In an off-market deal, The Living Co also purchased the Boston University Sydney Academic Centre in Chippendale for $72.5 million, expanding its PBSA footprint.

The Regent Street property includes a mix of three- and four-bedroom cluster apartments, with occupancy designed for purpose-built student accommodation, reinforcing the inner-Sydney PBSA corridor strategy.

Meanwhile in Melbourne, McGrath Estate Agents and Hodges Real Estate have formed Hodges McGrath, expanding operations in Bayside Melbourne and Rye on the Mornington Peninsula.

The report is part of The Business Briefing from The Sydney Morning Herald, highlighting notable commercial real estate transactions and industry moves.

The Regent Street property was owned by TJAC, a US-based investor since 2009, and the sale was negotiated by Knight Frank agents Tim Holtsbaum and Luke Shackleton.

Kandos Post Office in Kandos, NSW, is being sold for about $550,000 and sits on a 675-square-metre corner site, with the sale coinciding with the post office’s 100th anniversary.

StoreLocal expanded in western Sydney with two new facilities at Jamisontown and Arndell Park, totaling $57 million and boosting its footprint to 43 outlets nationwide.

The Living Co’s deals reflect strong investor appetite for PBSA in supply-constrained markets, with about $1.2 billion in PBSA transactions across five major deals in 2026.

True Alliance is selling a $100 million industrial site at 19 O’Riordan Street, Alexandria, a 13,140-square-metre freehold with redevelopment potential for data centre, self-storage, office, strata or hotel uses.

The Living Co’s broader strategy focuses on consolidating PBSA assets near major campuses, leveraging a portfolio that includes Aveo and RTL Co, with around $17 billion in assets under management and about 30,000 beds.

Previously, The Living Co expanded into Waterloo and Redfern, now controlling 118 buildings with 10 more under development.