This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
SHORTLY after launching a $750 million fund to back a shovel-ready portfolio of Melbourne build-to-rent projects, Samma Property Group has unveiled the acquisition of a 4,509 sqm waterfront project in Docklands for its next development.
The 194 Lorimer Street site on the Melbourne city fringe was acquired from government agency Development Victoria and is one of the last remaining sites on the southern bank of the Yarra River, adjacent to Mirvac’s Yarra’s Edge precinct.
Potentially the site can accommodate 90-metre high-rise residential tower. The planned build-to-rent development would be north facing with views towards Melbourne’s CBD, the Yarra River and Port Phillip Bay.
The Lorimer Street site was sold via expressions of interest managed by Lukas Byrns & Marcus Neill from Cushman & Wakefield. According to the firm, there is currently 26 active build-to-rent developers and platforms development sites in Melbourne with new groups continuing to emerge.
“The Docklands site was fiercely contested by traditional residential apartment developers and the emerging build-to-rent groups given the demand for well-located apartment project locations,” Byrns said.
Samma Property Group and impact investment firm Brightlight recently announced they are plotting a $1.7 billion pipeline of “designed-to-rent” apartment projects, which the partners consider an evolution of the build-to-rent model that will incorporate ongoing assessment of wellbeing measures including resident surveys.
That will kick off with four Melbourne projects, leading with a development planned for 65 Haig Street in Southbank.
They join a number of projects in along the CBD fringe and inner suburbs of Melbourne, which has become a magnet for developments in the nascent sector. Mirvac is undertaking major developments next to Queen Victoria Market and on Spencer Street, and has partnered with local developer Milieu for a project in Brunswick.
Melbourne has emerged as the most active location in the build to rent space nationally, accounting for over 60% of the projects either proposed or under construction, helped by the Victorian government further expanding build-to-rent concessions.
That has been met with US giant Greystar unveiling plans for Australia’s largest development in the sector in the inner suburb of South Yarra, following its $1.3 billion multifamily venture fund raising, Canadian group Oxford planning a $450 million development with over 700 units in the inner western suburb of Footscray, and global real estate firm Hines also buying a Brunswick site for a 250-unit apartment complex.
The country’s biggest superannuation fund, AustralianSuper took a 25% share in build-to-rent and alternative housing developer Assemble.
