Acquisitions, Construction Bolster Levande Pipeline

Retirement living operator Levande has settled on the acquisition of a parcel of 14 houses in the Castle Hill Showground precinct north-west of Sydney, bringing its development pipeline to about $2 billion.

The properties at 7-23 Cadman Crescent and 18-24 Hughes Avenue, Castle Hill, have multiple street frontages and cover a combined 1.25 hectares.

The property comes with development approval for 242 apartments, as well as communal open space and landscaping in a central courtyard. 

Levande said it had filed amendments to the approval, seeking 217 independent living apartments in a midrise village format, plus adjoining clubhouse facilities.

Construction is expected to begin next year, with the first tenants arriving in 2027.

Levande—created in February 2022 when Swedish private equity firm EQT acquired Stockland’s portfolio of 58 retirement villages—paid a total of just under $46 million for the 14 Castle Hill properties, according to CoreLogic data.

The deal settled in April this year.

▲ A concept design of what might go on the parcel of 14 residential lots in Castle Hill. 

It’s the second acquisition of an eastern seaboard development site by Levande in as many months.

Levande announced it is under contract to buy a 5ha greenfield infill site at Highton, opposite the Waurn Ponds Shopping Centre and about 6km south of Geelong.

The proposed development will include about 120 independent living units, a clubhouse and communal facilities. The site is next to a big medical precinct and near several aged-care facilities and public transport.

That deal follows Levande’s acquisition of a 1.75ha site at Bentleigh East, about 15km south-east of Melbourne’s centre, also this year. The Bentleigh East project will be home to about 400 residents in 290 units across four buildings, including a village centre.

The acquisitions come as the retirement-living operator announced it had sold 48 apartments from the first stage of a 28-storey vertical retirement village at Epping, north-west of Sydney.

Thirty of the soon-to-be completed apartments were sold within three weeks of the start of a marketing campaign.

▲ The 28-storey vertical retirement village in Epping. Main image: The tower in situ.

The design includes 172 independent living units and a 132-bed aged-care facility. It occupies the site of a former primary school, at 8 Cambridge Street, Epping, which Levande has rebuilt.

Construction began in December, 2022 and the first residents are expected to move in by late next year.

Levande said it expected to spend up to $2 billion on new developments, as well as redeveloping its existing sites, over the next 5-10 years.

“We want to be building 400-500 independent living units annually within the next couple of years,” Levande chief executive Kevin McCoy said.

“This scale of investment is absolutely essential as the retirement living sector prepares for exponential growth in retiree numbers, and more broadly, as Australia grapples with a nationwide shortage of housing.”