Coronation Adds St Leonards, Waterloo BtR Sites to Pipeline

Developer and builder Coronation Property has put its foot on two urban Sydney sites and is planning more than 750 build-to-rent apartments.

The sites are at St Leonards and Waterloo.

The site, at 46-52 Nicholson Street, in the St Leonards and Crows Nest priority growth area, was acquired off-market and is the company’s first development on the Lower North Shore.

The site, about 7km north of the Sydney CBD, is near the recently opened Crows Nest Metro Station as well as the Royal North Shore Hospital (RNS), and the St Leonards Commercial Centre and railway station.

Planned for the site are more than 350 build-to-rent apartments, ground-floor retail and community areas.

It has an estimated end value of $600 million and an expected completion date of early 2028, pending approvals.

Coronation managing director Joe Nahas said the St Leonards acquisition capitalised on the strong demand for rental apartments across the Sydney metropolitan area.

“Given its proximity to RNS and local medical and research hubs, we’ll be exploring the use of the incentive provisions available under the Housing SEPP to be able to deliver 15 per cent of the development as affordable, through our partnerships with Community Housing Providers,” Nahas said.

“This means that eligible low to medium-income health and allied care staff at RNS and The Mater Hospitals, as well as other essential workers, will have the chance to secure new, affordable rental properties—and be able to live close to where they work without having to commute long distances.”

▲ A render of the planned build-to-rent tower for the St Leonards site.

The other site is at 207 Young Street in the Waterloo urban renewal growth precinct.

The development, planned for a former commercial site on the corner of Young and Danks street, would comprise more than 400 build-to-rent apartments, 2500sq m of retail space, parkways and pedestrian access.

With an end value of $850 million, the development is 4km south of the CBD and near the new Waterloo Metro, Green Square and transport networks, Royal Prince Alfred, St Vincent’s and Prince of Wales hospitals, and the University of Sydney, University of NSW, University of Technology Sydney and Notre Dame universities.

The development has concept DA and voluntary planning agreement approvals, and has an estimated completion date of late 2027-early 2028.

“These two acquisitions demonstrate Coronation’s commitment to securing growth opportunities in well-serviced, well-connected urban areas of Sydney, so we can continue to build highly-amenitised new communities,” Nahas said.

Coronation’s stand-alone build-to-rent company, Nation, will operate both assets.

It is planned that Nation will operate about 3500 apartments by 2028. Coronation said it had a $5.7-billion pipeline of build-to-rent and build-to-sell developments already delivered, under construction or in planning.