Student digs trump apartments at Melbourne site
A proposed apartment tower in Melbourne is being reimagined as student accommodation as developers see better opportunities elsewhere.
Chinese developer AZX Group had planned a 47-storey, 471-apartment tower at 183-189 A’Beckett St atop the existing three-storey heritage building.
But yesterday the Singapore-based Wee Hur Group said they had bought the site for $35 million and would seek an amendment to the current development permit for residential apartments.
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The group instead plans to develop purpose-built student accommodation of about 900 beds, to make the most of the site’s proximity to the University of Melbourne and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
Wee Hur spokesman Ei Lee says other student accommodation projects are under way in Brisbane and Adelaide and they see great potential in Melbourne as well. “The market penetration (in Australia) is still fairly low compared with other major cities, with about 11-15% of foreign students housed in purpose-built accommodation,” he said.
“That compares with about 20% in cities like London.”
He says the exact number of student beds and the height of the building are still being finalised but they hope to begin construction on the A’Beckett St site late next year.
It is the latest in a series of proposed residential apartment towers to be given a new purpose, as demand contracts.
Others include Fishermans Bend in Melbourne, which is now set to be a massive childcare operation, and Lang Walker’s 8 Parramatta Square in Sydney, which will be built as a commercial office tower instead of apartments.
Wee Hur executive chairman, Goh Yeow Lian, says they are pleased with the Melbourne acquisition. “It is a city not to be missed in which to develop and own purpose built student accommodation,” Goh says.
“We believe Melbourne will remain a strong and attractive market for purpose built student accommodation and we will continue to source for further opportunities in Melbourne to grow our student accommodation portfolio.”
With the addition of A’Beckett St, Wee Hur will have 3250 student beds under development, including 1578 at Buranda in Brisbane’s inner south and 772 in Gray St, Adelaide.
Lee says the group has a target to own 5000 beds.
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
