This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
NEW Zealand-listed Ryman Healthcare has added to its aged care home development pipeline in Victoria, picking up six hectares of urban infill land in Melbourne’s north west for $35 million, where it is planning a $155 million retirement village.
The Kealba site borders the Bellara Crescent Reserve and has the Keilor Central shopping centre on its doorstep, and is a 15-minute drive to Melbourne Airport.
The village will contain independent living villas and a full aged care centre with specialist dementia care. It will also include a café, bar, gym, cinema, indoor pool, hair and beauty salons and bowling green.
About 150 long-term jobs will be created in addition to the hundreds created during the construction process.
Colliers Hamish Burgess and Joe Kairouz negotiated the off-market deal. The site was sold with an approved development plan for 194 dwellings.
Burgess said the size of the Driscolls Road site provided the opportunity for the development of a master-planned community, which had made it highly sought after.
“Surging median house prices in Melbourne’s metro market together with the scarcity of these large-scale suburban development sites is creating a flurry of activity in this sector,” Burgess said.
“Residential and retirement living developers, both private and listed, are competing to secure a limited number of remaining sites in Melbourne’s middle ring.”
Colliers data shows social infrastructure investment in the development site market has increased by more than 70% from 2020 to 2021, with $247 million worth of transactions being recorded in 2021 so far, compared to a total of $142.5 million last year.
Ryman has invested more than $1 billion in Victoria, having opened its first village in the state 2014. That has grown to five operational facilities and eight in various stages of planning, design and construction.
Last month it bought the Lions Club of Essendon-owned Essendon Terrace, next to a 1.8-hectare site it picked up in May, and has plans for a $165 million village, as well as a 2.35 hectare parcel next to its existing retirement village in Ocean Grove.
Earlier this year it paid $30 million for a 4.66-hectare property in the south eastern suburb of Mulgrave, in another deal brokered by Colliers.
Ryman Australia CEO Cameron Holland said the Kealba village would provide urgently needed retirement living options as well as care for retirees in the north west.
“There is a particularly acute shortage of retirement living and aged care options in the Kealba area so we’re keen to help meet that pressing need in the community.
“We know that retirees looking to downsize don’t want to go just anywhere. They want to be in a great location and remain connected to the family, friends and social networks in their local community.”
Australians are living longer than ever before. It is projected that the number of Australians aged 85 years and over will increase from 515,700 in 2018–19 – about 2% of the total population – to more than 1.5 million by 2058, or about 3.7%.
Council approval has just been given for not-for-profit VMCH’s proposal for a new 1.6 hectare retirement village in the eastern suburb of Kew.
Ryman Healthcare was founded in Christchurch in 1984 and owns and operates 43 retirement villages in New Zealand and Australia. They are home to more than 12,800 residents.
Its rival Summerset, New Zealand’s largest retirement village operator, has also been continuing its expansion into Australia. It closed spring with a fifth acquisition in Victoria, paying $33 million for a 1.83-hectare site in Oakleigh South.
