NorthWest Announces $2.4bn Joint Venture Expansion

NorthWest Healthcare Properties Australia has announced a 65 per cent expansion of its healthcare real estate joint venture with Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, taking its total commitments to more than $6 billion.

NorthWest Australia is the largest owner and developer of healthcare property assets in Australia and New Zealand.

It first entered the joint venture with GIC in 2018, which now has more than 20 healthcare properties across Australia worth more than $3 billion. 

NorthWest REIT and GIC will expand partnership commitments by about 65 per cent, adding a further $2.4 billion to the war chest, funded through both debt and equity. 

NorthWest has 10 projects in its development pipeline with about $6 billion in real estate under management. Its existing portfolio included hospitals, medical centres, aged care facilities and health precincts. 

NorthWest Australia chief executive Craig Mitchell said the healthcare specialist’s Assets Under Management (AUM) had grown 33 per cent in 2021. 

“We are pleased to expand our successful partnership with GIC through the additional $2.4-billion commitment announced today.,” Mitchell said. 

“A major focus for NorthWest is on creating large-scale healthcare precincts that deliver a range of critical health services to local communities, such as the recent expansion of our partnership with Epworth to activate its Geelong and Richmond precincts.

“Through our $3-billion development pipeline in Australia and New Zealand, we will continue to focus on servicing demand in areas of population growth, or where there is material under-servicing of critical facilities to local communities across Australia.”

Speaking at The Urban Developer’s healthcare summit, Northwest Healthcare Properties senior vice president of precincts Alex Belcastro said the “precinct megatrend” was here to stay in the healthcare landscape. 

“There’s absolutely no doubt that we’re seeing this precinct megatrend across Europe, North America, and Australia and New Zealand,” Belcastro said.

“There’s a growing understanding that building precinct advantage in the public and private sectors and also universities through research is a key focus.

“That’s certainly an area where we’re seeing significant opportunity for the public and the private sector to come together.

“It’s a great time for healthcare globally and there’s no doubt that there needs to be a level of sophistication from investors as well.”

In 2021 Northwest acquired a 50 per cent stake in Epworth at Geelong, which Belcastro said they were looking to build out further, and a site adjacent to the proposed Coomera greenfield public hospital at the Gold Coast.