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The founders of student housing provider Scape have filed plans for NSW’s largest build-to-rent development, a $1.5-billion for Sydney’s inner west.
The State Significant Development Application outlines plans for 1188 apartments across seven buildings that would range from 8 to 13 storeys.
The Timberyards project would be developed by Rent to Live Co (RTL Co), a venture established by Scape founders Craig Carracher and Stephen Gaitanos.
The 2.2ha site at Marrickville is bound by Victoria and Sydenham roads, and Farr and Mitchell streets. It is 7km from Sydney’s CBD within the Inner West Council area and 700m from Sydenham Station.
The proposed development comprises 115 affordable rental units, 484 build-to-rent apartments and 589 co-living homes.
The project also proposes 2394sq m of retail and commercial space, 2890 sq m of indoor communal areas and 10,200 sq m of outdoor communal and public open space. It would include 278 car spaces and 762 bicycle spaces.
An existing warehouse structure would be retained as the centrepiece of the central public domain corridor.
The plans include a 225sq m creative arts hub for artists and makers, featuring gallery and workshop spaces. The project’s gross floor area totals 76,643 sq m, with a 3.4:1 floor space ratio.
The development application said the project would incorporate environmentally sustainable design principles and follows Scape becoming the first in the student accommodation sector to receive a 6 Star Green Star Design and As Built rating from the Green Building Council of Australia.
RTL Co development manager Jonathan Combley said the developer planned to retain ownership and management of the precinct.
“We are developers, owners and operators ... we will operate this in perpetuity. The opportunity here is for us to create a precinct and curate it in an ongoing sense,” Combley said.
Scape co-founder Carracher said build-to-rent projects deserved enhanced government support.
“Government can never build enough houses to solve the supply side problem and instead of damaging supply-side confidence with demand-side levers—like immigration clamps—the Government and Opposition should stimulate the market players,” Carracher said.
“[They] should back proven operators to deliver a more diversified residential product mix to market. Social and affordable housing is vital to relieving pressure on rental markets through build-to-rent.”
According to fellow Scape co-founder Gaitanos, the development responds to National Housing Accord 2022 targets and population growth.
The site, rezoned in 2017 from industrial to mixed-use and high-density residential, is part of the Victoria Road corridor revitalisation.
The project will benefit from NSW government build-to-rent incentives, including a 50 per cent reduction in land tax and exemptions from foreign investor duties.
The project’s design is a collaboration between multiple architectural firms, with Turner Studio as the primary architect, and Tribe Studio, Architecture AND, Aileen Sage Architecture and Matthew Pullinger.
The project also involves First Nations input and landscape architecture from Yerrabingin and Arcadia, while Ethos Urban is the project planner.
The development is expected to create about 760 construction jobs and 164 ongoing operational positions.
Annual resident expenditure is projected to reach $83 million after its opening in 2028, excluding housing costs.
The application is available for public exhibition through the Department of Planning Housing and Infrastructure.
Construction is planned to begin in March of 2026, subject to approval, and completed in September 2028.
The project has secured backing from Dutch pension giants APG and property fund manager Bouwinvest, with about $1 billion in equity capital raised to date.
The development comes as Scape expands beyond its student accommodation roots, including recently establishing Australia’s first $6-billion open-ended property fund.
The fund has attracted significant international investment, including $700 million from South Korea’s National Pension System, and counts UBS Asset Management, APG, Bouwinvest and Ivanhoé Cambridge among its partners.
Carracher and Gaitanos manage nearly 19,000 student accommodation beds across 38 assets through Scape. Four thousand beds are under development.
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