Land lease operator buys third site and looks further afield

Springtree Over 55s Living, who entered the land lease communities sector in October 2024, has acquired a third greenfield site.

With existing communities at Yarrawonga, on the south bank of the Murray River in northeast Victoria, and Cobram, under construction in northern Victoria, Springtree paid $17.7 million for a 8.57 hectare greenfield site in Warragul, a town 102 km southeast of Melbourne's CBD.

The acquisition takes Springtree's development pipeline to almost 1,000 lots - and it has also acquired a further undisclosed site.

"Yarrawonga and Cobram are going well with stages being delivered, residents moving in and Clubhouses underway," Springtree's Co-Founder and Co-CEO David Laing told The Weekly SOURCE.

"We’re currently active on acquisitions across NSW and QLD."

Tom McDonald, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, said the Warragul project will add 215 homes at a total development cost of about $120 million and represents “another important step in Springtree’s national growth strategy”.

When Springtree, a partnership between Elka Capital and Assembly Funds Management, was launched it stated it planned to develop 2,000 homes along the East Coast. Now it is seeking 3,000 homes.

The sale of the Warragul site was brokered by Julian White and Lucas Gentile of Stonebridge Property Group following a targeted off-market expression-of-interest campaign. There were five bidders on the property, which forms part of the Lillifield housing estate being developed by Parklea. The Warragul site adjoins a future Coles supermarket.

“This sale reflects the growing demand for land lease community sites within major regional centres,” Julian said. “Land Lease has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of Australia’s growing living sector, with investment from institutional capital seeking stable large-scale residential exposure. This has led to strong volumes of land sales for this use in recent years.”