Triguboff joins developer rush to buy up whole apartment blocks
Apartment mogul Harry Triguboff has joined the growing band of developers buying out entire apartment blocks, with the acquisition of 60 units in an existing development in Sydney’s Macquarie Park.
Triguboff flagged more strata title purchases for the Meriton group, saying the process, whereby owners formed an alliance to sell their homes for redevelopment, allowed strata title owners to sell a building when at least 75% of owners agreed.
“We’re going a step further than that and prefer to buy only if all owners agree to sell,” Triguboff says.
“We’re not here to force sales by reluctant owners,” adds Triguboff, saying the amalgamation is the first in the company’s 56-year history.
Meriton’s head of acquisitions, David Ritch, says the apartment developer had received several approaches from owners where the 75% threshold had been reached and was looking to make more of these acquisitions.
“We are seriously looking for more sites and treat those approaches as a potential starting point,” Ritch says.
The practice is expected to become more commonplace as developers sought to avoid the high land price of Sydney’s apartment sites, sources said. Meriton declined to reveal the price paid for what is believed to be the biggest group sale of home units in the suburb.
For its money, Meriton has acquired a 4227sqm site at 2-10 Cottonwood Crescent, Macquarie Park, which is part of the Waterloo-Cottonwood Garden Precinct.
We are seriously looking for more sites and treat those approaches as a potential starting point
It is close to Meriton’s 2.37ha landholding where the developer is building the four-building master-planned community, Destination.
The Cottonwood Crescent site can take an apartment block of 14 levels, and Ritch says Meriton is preparing a new development application.
He would not disclose the cost of purchasing the 60 apartments located in five separate strata buildings on the island site that adjoins Wilga Reserve.
Ritch says the acquisition of the 60 apartments was made up of 12 units from developer VIG, 12 units from a single private owner of one of the blocks, three units owned by one individual owner, a further five units owned by a single owner, and 28 individually owned apartments.
Meriton anticipates construction to begin later this year or early next year, upon planning approval.
Several older apartments in popular Cottonwood Crescent have previously sold to developers. More than 40 apartments at 15-19 Cottonwood Crescent sold to an overseas developer in mid-2017 after the owners formed an alliance.
The owners had expected the site would sell for more than $65 million.
