Ryman Healthcare has snapped up another large scale suburban infill development site in metropolitan Melbourne for $35million.
In an off-market sale negotiated by Colliers’ Hamish Burgess and Joe Kairouz, NZX-listed Ryman Healthcare has acquired a 6.07ha property at 27 Driscolls Road in Kealba for the creation of a large-scale retirement living community.
The site, which is located in close proximity to Brimbank Park and the Maribyrnong River, was sold with an approved Development Plan for 194 dwellings.
It follows Ryman Healthcare’s $30million acquisition of a 46,600sqm permitted site at 62-94 Jacksons Road in Mulgrave earlier this year in another deal negotiated by Colliers.
Mr Burgess said the size of the Driscolls Road site provided the opportunity for the development of a master planned community, which had made it highly sought after.
“Surging median house prices in Melbourne’s metro market together with the scarcity of these large-scale suburban development sites is creating a flurry of activity in this sector,” Mr Burgess said. “Residential and retirement living developers, both private and listed, are competing to secure a limited number of remaining sites in Melbourne’s middle ring.
“Furthermore, we note that social infrastructure investment in the development site market has increased by more than 70% from 2020 to 2021, with $247million worth of transactions being recorded in 2021 so far compared to a total of $142.5m in 2020.”
Mr Kairouz said 2021 had been a year of robust activity in Melbourne’s metropolitan development site market, with the value of sales dramatically eclipsing that of 2020.
“To date we have seen approximately $1.15billion in sales in the metro market in 2021, which has surpassed the 2020 total by nearly 60%,” he said. “A lot of this activity has been driven by off-market transactions.”
