This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
BILLIONAIRE James Packer, former Crown Resorts executive Todd Nisbet and former ABC board member Joe Gersh have picked up a vacant former Aveo retirement home in Melbourne’s Balwyn for $13 million.
The property at 23 Maleela Avenue, in the eastern suburbs, was known as Aveo’s Balwyn Manor, and home to many of Melbourne’s elite, most of which have transferred to other Aveo-operated homes nearby.
The 52-bed facility had been taken on by Aveo when it acquired the Freedom Aged Care business in February 2016 for $215 million. The new owners have filed plans with the City of Boroondara for the 3,862 sqm site that include 31 high-end apartments.
CBRE’s Sandro Peluso, Marcello Caspani-Muto and Jimmy Tat sold the property in conjunction with NSL Property Group.
“We have seen such a rapid rise in the divestment of vacant aged care assets with no one leading buyer type the stand out so it’s hard to predict who the best end user for the asset will be,” Peluso said.
“We have sold comparable homes to private investors, owner occupiers and funds across various sectors in the past 36 months. While developers often review the opportunities it is incredibly rare for them to be competitive from a pricing placement scenario.”
Aveo has been steadily selling down its vacant retirement villages. Among the recent divestments have been the Tweed Fairways facility in Tweed Heads South for $18 million plus GST, hot on the heels of its sale of Tanah Merah Village in Loganholme for $44 million to the Queensland government, which will use the 23,030 sqm site for affordable housing.
Last year it also sold retirement villages in Windsor and Toowoomba for $10 million each to the Queensland government’s Department of Housing and Human Services.
