A large, vacant block of land is for sale on Northbourne Avenue, after a plan to develop hundreds of build-to-rent homes fell through.
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Evri Group has listed 220 Northbourne Avenue, Braddon for sale, which comes with development approval for about 400 rental homes and an office building.
Based on a recent comparable sale, it is understood the block could be worth more than $55 million.
The group is hopeful selling the vacant block with development approval in place will be more attractive to an institutional investor looking to take on a build-to-rent project in the ACT.
Build-to-rent housing refers to developments that are held in single ownership and rented on a long-term basis.
Plans approved after previous refusal
Evri Group received development approval in December for 392 build-to-rent units across two 13-storey buildings plus a six-storey office building.
But it wasn't an easy road to getting approval.
The development proposal was first knocked back in September by the planning authority, which cited a lack of parking among its reasons for the refusal.
Evri Group has owned the 10,663-square-metre site on the corner of Northbourne and Wakefield avenues since 2000.
It was formerly home to government offices, including the National Capital Development Commission until the 1980s.
The vacant government offices were demolished in 2023 to make way for the development, which would be among Canberra's first build-to-rent schemes.
Developer struggles to find partner
Build-to-rent housing is typically owned by institutional investors, such as capital fund managers or superannuation funds, or the original developers who continue to manage the building.
As the homes aren't sold to individual owners, build-to-rent schemes require a large amount of up-front capital.
Evri Group senior development manager Rob Speight said the group had explored partnering with a build-to-rent operator for the Northbourne Avenue project.
"In the end, the advice from [real estate] agents around town was these big operators that come to town pretty much exclusively look at clean deals," he said.
By a "clean deal", Mr Speight said that meant selling the site with a development application already approved and letting the buyer do the rest.
"They develop it, they build it, they receive the revenues on completion and they manage the ongoing project as well," he said.
Developer 'hopeful' of build-to-rent future
While a price guide was not disclosed, a recent sale in nearby Turner offers an indication of what the block of land might be worth.
Amalgamated Property Group purchased a 16,303-square-metre vacant block, also on Northbourne Avenue, for $59.3 million in 2022.
The group plans to build a 418-apartment development on the site.
The block has been listed for sale with CBRE, which will manage an expressions of interest campaign.
CBRE Canberra managing director Nic Purdue said the land and the project would appeal to large investors looking to continue the build-to-rent plans.
He said the project was designed by Fender Katsalidis specifically for long-term tenants.
"From the design of the apartments themselves to the high level of amenity on site, this is ideally targeting a group who's going to look at this as 'we're going to build it and we're going to hold it for 25 years and we're going to be able to charge a premium on the rents to do so'," he said.
Mr Purdue said there may also be interest from "more traditional" funds who would look to partner with a construction team on the project.
While Evri Group struggled to make the project work, Mr Speight said the team was positive it would appeal to an institutional investor.
"Canberra's limited in [building] height and development potential very much by planning controls and land availability," he said.
"We're hopeful that an operator like that sees that these offers don't come along every day."