City Gets Behind Melbourne’s Record-Breaking BtR Plan

Developer AsheMorgan has won the support of the City of Melbourne’s planning committee for what it says would be the biggest build-to-rent project in Australia.

The double-tower project comprising 925 apartments is planned for what has been labelled one of the last developable sites in the Docklands precinct. 

The Future Melbourne Committee voted unanimously to inform the Victorian planning minister Sonya Kilkenny and the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning that it did not object to the application, barring conditions around the tower heights, at its meeting on April 9.

The minister will make the final determination on the future of the project slated for the 9643sq m site at 24 Little Docklands Drive. 

The project plans by architects Warren and Mahoney show two towers of build-to-rent apartments plus more than 2000sq m of public open space. 

There would be 626 apartments in a 23-storey tower and 299 apartments in a 18-storey tower.

Both towers are over the height limits laid out in the development plan. 

There would be retail tenancies at the ground-floor levels of the towers as well as a publicly accessible plaza of 1700sq m and a new lane.

Plans include 138 carparking spaces, eight motorcycle parking spaces and 1760 bicycle storage spaces.

AsheMorgan would also provide a cash contribution to an affordable housing agency of $8 million, equivalent to providing 6 per cent of the housing at a 25 per cent discount on market pricing. 

Council documents estimated the total development cost for the project at $240 million.

▲ AsheMorgan says with 900-plus apartments, the build-to-rent project will be the biggest in the country.

City of Melbourne’s deputy Lord Mayor, Nicholas Reece, raised a condition that the developer keep to the height limits laid out in the development plan endorsed by the planning minister.

The condition added to the proposed plans was that three storeys be removed from one tower and two storeys from the second tower to prevent overshadowing of the Docklands Primary School nearby. 

“When it comes to our role as custodians of the city we govern for everyone here in the city, and sometimes that requires us to be pragmatic, sometimes that requires me to be firm,” Reece said.

“And we are going to require that three stories be taken off one of the towers, that two stories be taken off another one of the towers and that will ensure that the sunlight will continue to shine on the playground.”

Cr Rohan Leppert said, “We do need to strike a fair and equitable approach to orderly planning in the area.

“We need to acknowledge that these things set precedents.

“I think it is a very good outcome and I commend the applicant.”

The step forward for the project comes as the Federal Government annnounced it will start reviewing draft legislation to allow build-to-rent managed investment trusts to claim a 15 per cent withholding tax rate if 10 per cent of the housing in a project is offered at a 25 per cent discount on market rates.