Authors: Xiao Ma, SUN SHENG HAN, Shuya Yang, Xinrui Gao

Apartment quality has become a critical issue in Australian cities. While the pursuit of rapid, mass, and relatively affordable housing supply, alongside the role of transnational housing finance and production, has been investigated, their built environment outcomes are rarely examined. This paper aims to address the gaps in understanding the impacts of these housing supply initiatives on the variation in apartment quality and built environment outcomes. It investigates 1) how apartment design corresponds to transnational gentrification trends, and 2) how transnational gentrification and apartment quality issues are framed in official discourse. Interview data and policy documents are collected and analysed using a framework that structures transnational gentrification around three players: transnational developers, transnational investors and transnational residents. The findings demonstrate that the quality of Australian apartments cannot be adequately safeguarded through domestic policies. It must take into account the dynamics of transnational gentrification. Theoretically, this study extends the concept of transnational gentrification by demonstrating the different facilitators, representations and impacts in Australian housing development.