Aware Super has invested an undisclosed amount to acquire the remaining 30% that it does not already own in Oak Tree Retirement Villages, a senior housing platform that owns 48 complexes along Australia’s Eastern seaboard.

The Australian superannuation fund first invested in Oak Tree Group in 2017 with a 70% equity stake and the founders retained the remaining equity.

Aware Super head of property, Alek Misev, said the Oak Tree Group since 2017 had seen the size of the business doubled. “We have put quite a lot of money to work and we are very keen to grow this further,” he said.

As with all the investments the fund made, he said Aware Super would invest a further “couple of hundred million” to scale up the business.

Retirement living now makes up 20% of Aware Super’s total living sector portfolio of A$5bn (€3bn).

Misev added: “We went from 25% to 50% in Keyton (formerly Lendlease Retirement Living) and now we are going from 70% to 100% in Oaktree because these businesses have performed above our expectations.

“If you look at the market now, we know where we would rather be. It is retirement living, build-to-rent (BTR) and the living sector. These are holding up very well.

“There is a shortage of housing, and not in just BTR and retirement living. People are finding it hard to find quality product – at an affordable price – to live in.”

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