Abstract: Research on master planned estates (MPEs) to date has concentrated on whether they are desirable or undesirable approaches to new residential development. Yet MPEs are also one form of emerging space in the Australian urban landscape. These spaces reflect the logics of highly mobile capital, where certain regions and cities are treated as commodities that are produced by branding to make them competitive and open to investment. Similarly, MPEs are spatially embedded commodities that go beyond providing residential living space to offer additional facilities and other attractions to improve the quality of the living experience. This paper explores engagement with the experience economy and understandings of the living experience by developers and residents of MPEs. Based on case studies of MPEs in the Lower Hunter region of New South Wales it was found that residents have different interpretations of living experience, which do not necessarily reflect the intentions of developers. Although the experience offerings provided by the developer may fall short of expectation, this does not necessarily detract from the way the residents (or consumers) construct their living experiences within the estate. Through this analysis MPEs are interpreted as a spatial manifestation of the experience economy, with the emphasis on constructing a residential environment where the physical elements of the estate serve as props to stage experiences are produced by the developer and thereby made available for consumption by the resident.