Developer eyes $80m Bondi site for luxury apartments
A cluster of Sydney shopfronts near Bondi Beach, including the local post office, could make way for a luxury apartment development with fund manager Initium Capital in talks to acquire the $80 million site from multiple property owners.
The near 1800-square-metre site on Hall Street represents one of the largest private amalgamations in the beachside suburb’s history and is just metres from Campbell Parade – the suburb’s main thoroughfare that runs parallel to Sydney’s most famous beach.
Along with the Australia Post outlet, the amalgamated site includes Anglicare, Uturn, a backpackers hostel, and a hardware store.
The proposed deal comes as Bondi Beach undergoes a wave of gentrification amid a push by the state government to increase housing density to meet its mandate of building 112,000 new homes in five years.
Both the NSW government and the local council have identified Hall Street as a focus for urban renewal. The stretch between O’Brien Street and Campbell Parade is viewed by the local council as a corridor with untapped redevelopment potential.
The state government, meanwhile, is pushing for up to 2400 new homes to be delivered by 2029 across the Waverley Council area, which includes Bondi, Bronte and parts of Vaucluse, as part of the state government’s push to rezone areas around town centres and transport hubs to allow for more housing density.
Just next door to the development, Moshav Financial has capitalised on that development push and is nearing completion of its 17-unit Aqualine luxury development at 45 Hall Street, where the penthouse alone sold for $22 million last year. Moshav Financial paid just $21 million for that site in 2019.
The Hall Street site was assembled over time, with neighbouring owners ultimately deciding to band together and list their properties collectively in response to the state planning reforms, which have encouraged owners of well-located assets to offload to developers capable of delivering more housing.
Initium, formerly the property investment arm of the Huang and Hayson family offices, is now raising capital from wholesale investors to finance the deal. According to marketing materials seen by The Australian Financial Review, the Initium Bondi Project Development Fund is targeting a 25 per cent annual return and is seeking $29 million in fresh equity to close the acquisition by month’s end.
Both the Hayson and Huang family built their wealth in property. The Hayson family, best known for developing the Harbourside Shopping Centre at Darling Harbour, and the Huang family – who built their fortune through Chinese residential development – remain active backers of Initium as it transitions into a standalone fund manager with a focus on infill, high-value sites across Sydney.
Led by Max Haydon, Victor Huang and Bo Zhuang, Initium intends to redevelop the site into a four-storey luxury apartment complex with boutique retail at street level. To achieve that, the group is planning to use the NSW government’s housing density bonus, which allows increased height and floor space in exchange for having a portion of the apartments be dedicated to affordable housing.
Initium declined to comment. The real estate agents managing the sale, Metro Commercial’s Jerry Leis and Wiesner Property’s Jeremy Wiesner also declined to comment.
The property fund manager has been active in snapping up prime residential sites, acquiring various developments in Mosman, such as 686-692 Military Road and 7 Gurrigal Street, over the past two years. Both Mosman projects are situated between Balmoral Beach and Neutral Bay.
