Galileo Funds pushes ahead with Miranda development
Galileo Funds has made a major play in Sydney’s Miranda, securing 14 homes in one line, where it is advancing plans for a $170 million luxury apartment complex.
The large-scale apartment developer pounced on the homes on University St and the Kingsway in 2014, paying about two to three times market value for each.
The group has since benefited from a succession of planning changes throughout Sydney’s Sutherland Shire, and has now secured approval to build a 200-unit complex around a resort-style pool area and entertainment terrace.
“The area ticked the box in terms of basic amenities, with great transport connections and a train station, great schools, a hospital and a location close to the beaches,” director Paul Marshall says.
“And we were confident it was going to be rezoned.”
The deal is expected to set a new benchmark for residential lot sales, which continue to occur across the city as local councils adjust planning laws to allow for higher-density development in quiet streets close to public transport.
We’re voting with our feet and any area where there’s been an underprovision of quality development and there’s a basic ingredient for residents to want to live there — we see that as a magic formula
This week, Hong Kong-based developer Golden Pond emerged as the mystery buyer behind the sale of a $66 million string of homes in Sydney’s St Leonards, brokered in late 2015. The privately owned developer in September ousted some of Sydney and Asia’s largest developers to buy nine detached homes on Canberra and Holdsworth avenues in one line, which combined allowed for a mega-development with potential for 257 apartments.
The transaction negotiated by JLL agents Sam Brewer and Ben Hunter — reflecting a price of more than $7.3 million a home — set a benchmark for residential lot sales, and demonstrated the capacity for homeowners to net steep premiums to the value of their home if they sold in one line to a developer.
While many developers have focused on industrial lots in the commercial hubs close to the city, such as Mascot and Botany, for new residential sites a growing number of developers are training their sights on low-density residential streets close to public transport or adjacent to new infrastructure in the hope of netting an uplift from planning changes.
Winten is understood to be quietly amassing a string of homes in the streets adjacent to Sydney’s Northern Beaches Hospital, under construction in French’s Forest, at a time when more residents are aware of the potential to net steep premiums if they combine with neighbours to create superlots in the suburbs.
Around the corner, a group of 62 homeowners hopes to collect almost $200 million for the 4.3ha block 200m from the Northern Beaches Hospital.
The area ticked the box in terms of basic amenities, with great transport connections and a train station, great schools, a hospital and a location close to the beaches
Marshall says Galileo will continue to assess former industrial sites close to the city for residential development opportunities, but older suburban areas are increasingly offering opportunities for development in close reach of shopping hubs and great transport connections.
“We’re voting with our feet and any area where there’s been an underprovision of quality development and there’s a basic ingredient for residents to want to live there — we see that as a magic formula,” he says.
“These sites offer a great way to live that’s close to all that amenity.”
– with Ben Wilmot
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
