Ryman, DM trade slice of ex-school
Ryman Healthcare has sold a piece of the former Brandon Park Secondary School at Wheelers Hill to a townhouse developer.
The New Zealand listed healthcare group is banking a speculated $9.1 million for the 9065 square metre parcel, Lot 2, 2 Collegium Avenue (outlined, image, top), highly exposed to Brandon Park Drive.
It paid $47.5m for the 5.6 hectare ex-school in 2014 – replacing it in stages with the Dame Nellie Melba retirement living community and aged care home.
Part of the deal requires the vendor building a 9119 sqm boundary reserve.
“We have seen dramatically increased interest in townhouse and boutique apartment sites in early 2025 thanks to the introduction of the Townhouse and Low Rise Code planning changes,” Cushman & Wakefield’s Hamish Burgess who brokered the deal with Joe Kairouz and Leon Ma, said.
“These changes are enabling faster permits with greater built form outcomes,” he added of the policy, which aims to make Melbourne Australia’s “townhouse capital”, according to premier Jacinta Allan.
“Anecdotal evidence from the market suggests that these planning updates are immediately making projects more feasible,” according to the executive.
Wheelers Hill, which shares the same postcode as Glen Waverley, is about 23 kilometres south east of Melbourne’s CBD (story continues below).
Australia’s townhouse capital
The Wheelers Hill plot was expected to make way for more retirement living and aged care product; zoned Growth Residential, opposite Brandon Park Shopping Centre, structures up to five floors could be considered.
Ryman offered it with a scheme for 43 dwellings over basement car parking.
Instead the incoming owner, DM Property, formed in 2022 by former ID_Land executives Brendan Mullan and David Dodevic, is planning 37 townhouses with a mix of between two and four bedrooms.
The deal comes three years since Ryman sold the ex-Coburg High School in Bell St to a townhouse developer for $21.8m – a loss on the $25.5m it paid in 2017.
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