Pro-invest Group: Operating platforms to drive next decade of real estate returns

Pro-invest Group says returns over the next decade will hinge on operating expertise as much as property ownership, citing its A$3 billion platform and the Coogee Sands Hotel & Apartments as proof. The firm sees urban accommodation, hospitality-backed flexible stays, as a key growth sector amid affo

Real estate returns over the next decade will depend as much on operating expertise as on the properties investors hold, according to Pro-invest Group, a vertically integrated investment, development and asset management platform founded in 2010 by Ronald Stephen Barrott and Dr Sabine Schaffer.

“For decades, real estate has been about the building,” said Schaffer, co-founder and managing partner. “The next decade will be about the operating platform behind the building.” The firm argues that population growth, constrained accommodation supply, affordability strain and shifting mobility patterns are reshaping how people live and stay in cities, drawing a distinction between build-to-rent and what it calls urban accommodation — hospitality-backed, flexible stays built around guest experience and operational discipline.

Institutional investors are increasingly backing operating platforms rather than individual assets, the firm says, a shift favouring groups that combine development, investment, asset management and operating capability under one roof. Pro-invest Group’s own fundraising history illustrates the pattern: it built its first fund around a national roll-out of Holiday Inn Express hotels under a master agreement with InterContinental Hotels Group, then closed the Australian Hospitality Opportunity Fund II at A$300 million (US$211 million) in October 2020, adding IHG’s voco brand and drawing equity backing from the government-owned Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

Sixteen years after founding, the firm manages more than A$3 billion with a track record of over 30 hotels, flex-living, build-to-rent and commercial properties across roughly 15 markets in Australia, Europe and the Middle East. It runs Holiday Inn Express, voco, Hotel Indigo and Kimpton-branded properties across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Newcastle, Canberra and Auckland, and posted 2025 GRESB scores of 81 out of 100 for standing investments and 88 out of 100 for developments under its One Earth, Countless Experiences framework — more than double its 2017 scores.

The firm points to Coogee Sands Hotel & Apartments, on Sydney’s Coogee Beach, as the first asset built around its urban accommodation strategy, delivered through adaptive reuse of an existing building. Acquired in partnership with MEC Global Partners Asia, the property is being converted into 80 design-led studios, with guest bookings due to open in the third quarter of 2026 and the property itself expected to open in the fourth quarter.

With Australia facing an accommodation shortage, Pro-invest Group sees the key constraint on returns as the ability to deliver projects on time and within budget, citing planning approval timelines, construction costs and labour shortages as barriers. “If we only wait for perfect new supply, we will move too slowly,” Schaffer said. “The opportunity is to use capital, planning clarity and operational capability to activate more of the cities we already have.”

Affordability pressure is also shifting demand toward flexibility, service and professionally managed environments, the firm says. “It used to be, ‘Where can I live?’ Increasingly, it is also, ‘What kind of experience, flexibility and certainty do I need?’” Schaffer said. Looking ahead, Pro-invest Group expects the conversation to shift toward accommodation platforms, with build-to-rent maturing alongside deeper institutional student housing and retirement living sectors. “The next decade will not just reward those who own real estate,” Schaffer said. “It will reward those who know how to operate it.”