Gold Coast deal sees Local become Australia’s biggest BTR provider
Local has become the country’s biggest build to rent provider following an off-market deal for the seven hectare Smith Collective – developed in 2018 as the Commonwealth Games Athlete’s Village – at Southport.
The deal, with UBS, believed to be acting for the Abu Dhabi Investment Corporation, and Grocon, includes 1252 dwellings, most in 19 high density towers.
The value of the residences is speculated to exceed $620 million.
Local, a BTR investment house established in November, 2021, backed by Macquarie Asset Management, presently manages 1291 units with 814 under construction.
Led by ex-Grocon executives Matt Berg and Dan McLennan, major domestic competitors include, amongst others, Coronation, Mirvac and Home (a Grocon arm).
Local doubles portfolio
Once owned by the state government, the Southport site forms part of the 9.5ha master-planned Lumina precinct, also with two hospitals and two universities.
Smith Collective was considered Australia’s first institutional grade rental housing project; its delivery saw 6280 square metre of retail used for the Commonwealth Games, repurposed as residential.
Covering properties on Clarke Street, Pearson and Stanley lanes, Village Boulevard and Nexus Way, the complex, retaining a Woolworths and some cafes, also with a pool and gym, has since 2018 been managed by Grocon and JLL.
Some buildings are fit out as student accommodation complexes.
Others are for NDIS-approved residents.
A bulk of the project is configured with townhouses, potentially opening the door to longer term development upside.
The sale comes three months since UBS AM and Grocon lodged plans to replace a nearby 1.73ha site, 1 Clarke St, with four towers, between nine and 13 levels, containing 900 units, another BTR project, targeting key workers and students, and 724 car parks (story continues below).
Southport is six kilometres north of Surfers Paradise.
Forty busy months
Local has to date focused on product in Melbourne, where it is headquartered.
Last month we reported the group seized control of a Docklands site, 65-71 Haig St, permit-ready for a 40-level, 312 unit complex – 74 per cent which will be configured as studios or with one bedroom.
In late 2023 meanwhile, the group bought into Golden Age Group’s mixed-use Sky Square complex, in east Box Hill.
Those 425 units are speculated to be worth c$360m.
Local also that year acquired a major South Melbourne BTR investment on a funds through basis from Michael Dib’s Blue Earth Group.
With 405 apartments across 40 levels, that asset was reported to carry a c$280m end value.
The Box Hill and South Melbourne properties seeded a managed venture.
Local also controls 477 units in Kensington – at the north west corner of Macaulay Road and Stubbs St – a project which recently replaced an ex-TNT Express factory.
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