Build-to-Rent in Europe: How the Living Sector Became the Top Real Estate Asset Class

In 2025, the Living sector — build-to-rent, coliving, serviced residences — accounted for 30% of direct European real estate investment, the top asset class for the second consecutive year. This is no longer an emerging segment: it has become the center of gravity for institutional real estate capital in Europe.

The growth trajectory confirms the structural shift: +34% in 2024, +22% in 2025, with stable annual growth of 10 to 15% expected for 2026. Investment volumes are expected to exceed €27 billion in 2026, up from €25 billion in 2025. This acceleration isn't a one-off catch-up effect — it reflects a durable reallocation of institutional capital toward operated, recurring-income assets.

The supply deficit sustaining the long-term thesis

Residential housing starts are forecast to drop 5% in 2025 and again in 2026 — an even sharper decline in cities, where completions fall 11% in 2025. This supply deficit, combined with continued urbanization and high homeownership costs, creates the conditions for durable rental scarcity, not a cyclical one.

It's this structural scarcity that sets build-to-rent apart from a simple cycle bet. An investor who builds or acquires a managed rental asset today captures demand that won't be resolved at the pace of new construction over the next 5 to 10 years.

Why build-to-rent demands operational, not just land, discipline

Build-to-rent shares a defining trait with coliving and PBSA: performance depends on active management, not passive ownership. Optimizing common areas, digitalizing lease management, continuously upgrading service levels — these operational levers, more than market appreciation, determine the final return.

This large-format structuring discipline draws directly on know-how already demonstrated by the founding team on Vallée du Camincourt, a 116,991 sqm logistics platform developed in partnership with Elcimaï — the same skill base that structures FINXIA's entire residential targeting today, detailed in our housing deficit thesis.

What the Living shift changes for institutional allocation

When an asset class becomes the top destination for European real estate capital two years running, the challenge for an investor is no longer justifying the allocation — it's selecting the most disciplined execution within an increasingly contested segment. Large-format structuring and operational discipline, not access to capital, become the differentiating factor.