HOME Files Melbourne Build-to-Rent Project Plans

Following its debut in the Melbourne market, developer HOME has filed plans for a build-to-rent project on Queens Road just south of the CBD.

The site opposite Albert Park’s golf course and other sporting venues and in close proximity to tramlines on St Kilda Road, the Royal Botanic Gardens and the Melbourne’s Arts Precinct, Queens Road has had a history of private mansions and older apartment buildings that gave way to office blocks from the 1970s onwards.

Build-to-rent developer HOME may be about to change all that, proposing plans for a project at the 6974sq m site at 6-9 Queens Road.

The plans for HOME Albert Park filed with the City of Port Phillip state the project will cost an estimated $225 million.

It will be HOME’s fourth project in Melbourne and will be close to the future Anzac Train Station near the Shrine of Remembrance.

HOME’s build-to-rent offerings include projects in Southbank and Richmond which are already complete and were opened last year, with HOME Docklands due to open in 2024.

In New South Wales, the company has HOME St Peters and HOME St Leonards currently in planning and HOME Parramatta scheduled to open in 2024.

The Albert Park plans would comprise 560 apartments designed by Cox Architects.

There would be a mix of studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments on offer with a ground floor cafe and a public space connecting Queens Road and Queens Lane.

The 19th century mansion also on the property, would be restored as part of the project.    

HOME Albert Park is slated for completion late 2026, pending planning approval.

▲ A render of the project HOME Southbank, developer HOME's first project in Melbourne.

The site is currently the home of the Eden on the Park Hotel (also known as the Bayview Eden) with 192 rooms, a restaurant, bar, conference and meeting space, swimming pool and basement car park and also has a period mansion on the property.

It was listed for sale in June 2022 via an expressions of interest campaign as the second largest land holding in the St Kilda Road Precinct.

Malaysian firm Oriental Holdings's Bayview Group and KAH Australia were the vendors of the site. 

The company also sold another hotel, the Bayview on the Park, at 50-52 Queens Road to Aware Real Estate, a partnership between Aware Super and Altis for more than $70 million in September 2021.

Plans for that site include 300 units of build-to-rent and affordable housing for key or essential workers.

GFM Investment Management Limited is the applicant listed on Albert Park documents submitted to the council and is the holding entity behind the HOME build-to-rent brand. 

ASIC records show that Kieran Pryke, John Campbell Easy, Craig Douglas Mitchell and Irene Mavrogiannakis are listed as its directors. 

HOME will also contribute funds to not-for-profit organisation Homes for Homes.