NSW Deals Advance Traders in Purple Midrise Strategy

High-profile developer Traders in Purple has joined the ranks of those making the most of housing reforms in NSW, scooping up two North Shore sites. The developer has acquired a 5900sq m site fronting Pymble Golf Course at 46-50 Cowan Road, St Ives, and has finalised the acquisition of 8-24 Nicholson Street at Wollstonecraft. Both were acquired on-market through Colliers. Traders in Purple said it was planning an 80-apartment scheme for the St Ives site, which is zoned medium-density residential, while the second site was recently rezoned to allow up to 12 storeys, the developer said. At both sites, the developer had benefitted from low and midrise changes introduced in the state in February, Traders in Purple chief executive Brett Robinson told The Urban Developer . “The low to midrise SEPP changes ... meant that these two sites, and lots of others, could have extra height,” Robinson said. The reforms altered planning controls for sites within 800m of about 171 town centres and stations, allowing further density and height. This included at Wollstonecraft Station and St Ives Shopping Centre. ▲ The reforms are expected to deliver about 112,000 homes. “The St Ives site was bought from another developer who was building townhouses there, but once everyone knew these reforms were coming in, the land was now worth a lot more as apartment development sites, and that was the catalyst for both,” Robinson said. While the market had been uncertain about what the reforms would look like , it is now full-steam ahead. “They were delayed three months and that didn’t give people confidence but it’s out now and we know that the only way to solve the housing issue is supply.” Site plans The Wollstonecraft site was rezoned last year to allow a 43m height limit making residential development up to 12 storeys possible, according to Traders in Purple. “We’ll be looking to lodge planning applications for both projects in the next six months—we like to move quickly,” Robinson said. “In this industry time is money and time is the biggest challenge we face.” The projects have a combined estimated value of $560 million. The target demographics for both sites were downsizers, Robinson said, who tended to live within 10km of a site. “With St Ives, buyers will come from around there, and if we don’t sell to members of the golf course I’d be surprised. “There’s always a market, even if the economy goes bad and sales slow, there are always people looking to downsize.” Bringing Queensland approach to NSW The projects resembled the developer’s Queensland projects, Robinson said. “A lot of the projects in NSW are legacy projects, such as partnerships with the state government, but in Queensland they’re all private.” Traders in Purple is near to finishing Stage 1 of its 175-unit Tydal Sands project at Woody Point on the Redcliffe Peninsula, and late last year acquired a West End “supersite” in Brisbane. Across from Tydal Sands is the developer’s Orilla, a 32-unit project with apartments averaging about $2.5 million. ▲ A rendering of Trader in Purple’s Orilla development at Woody Point. “They are all owner-occupier, and the difference there has been that we have our own construction company, so we can develop with confidence,” Robinson said. “We’re setting up a new construction team in Sydney to deliver these projects, and it was always our next area of growth to do projects in NSW that we’ve already been doing in Queensland for the past 10 years.” ▲ Traders in Purple is moving ahead with its Tydal Sands project in Queensland. Traders in Purple had defied market uncertainty, consistently acquiring and developing sites throughout and after the pandemic, and the secret was perseverance, Robinson said. “It’s simple really, it’s continually being in the market. We were delivering projects during Covid, and then 12 months later the country boomed. If we’d stopped, we would have missed it,” Robinson said. “We buy projects, [and] deliver them and build them as quickly as possible. We don’t try to hold them and pick the market. “You get the bad times, but you also get the good times.”

NSW Deals Advance Traders in Purple Midrise Strategy

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