Aspen Grows SA Pipeline in $14m Deal

Affordable accommodation and land lease communities developer Aspen Group has bought up the remaining stages of the Wallaroo Shores masterplanned community for $14.1 million. 

The Sydney-based developer plans to resurrect the development, which stalled two years ago when builder Felmeri Homes collapsed. 

MPG began construction on the Wallaroo Shores development in 2020 after acquiring the property in 2014. 

However, the collapse of Adelaide-based builder Felmeri Homes in 2023 brought construction of townhouses to a halt, including plans for the $42-million Wyndham Wallaroo Resort, which was expected to be completed last year.

Wallaroo is a coastal town on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula on the Copper Coast, 160km north-west of Adelaide CBD.

Aspen owns more than 5000 lots across land lease communities and co-living assets, retirement and lifestyle communities, with total assets worth more than $600 million. 

The ASX-listed developer has sites across metropolitan and regional areas in NSW, Victoria, SA, WA and NT.

The Copper Coast is one of South Australia's fastest-growing regions with a high rate of retiree migration and a population that is forecast to top 30,000 people in the next 25 years, a 90 per cent increase. 

Aspen and the Copper Coast Council have agreed on a concept masterplan comprising more than 300 sites including 200 land lease sites, residential build-to-rent, townhouses and residential land lots, in addition to a commercial and retail precinct. 

Aspen has advised it will seek formal development approval following settlement. 

The acquisition represents a $1.1-million per hectare transaction, which Aspen said would be “funded with debt and interest will be capitalised until the project becomes income producing”.

Aspen’s development pipeline is now close to 2500 lots across 16 sites, diversified across land lease, residential build-to-rent and residential land.