Retirement living player Reside Communities hangs out for-sale sign
Missed out on Aveo and RetireAustralia? Then it’s time to get your ducks in a row for Reside Communities, a small(er) but fast-growing retirement living platform that could shape as the next hot bet in a thriving sector.
Reside’s owners, Asian player Gaw Capital Partners and local sector specialist GreenFort Capital, have mandated Morgan Stanley – fresh off advising on Aveo’s record-busting sale to Scape Australia – to gauge buyer appetite for the retirement living platform. A sale process is expected to kick off this year, and an introductory flyer dubbed ‘Project Florida’ is now in front of potential bidders.
Reside owns and operates five villages across South East Queensland, with more than 1000 luxury homes in Brisbane, Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast. By contrast, Aveo had 10,000 odd units across 65-plus villages.
It is being pitched as a scalable Australian beachhead to new entrants, while existing platform owners have been told to think about Reside as a bolt-on acquisition.
The up-for-grabs business has 236,00 square metres of land, spread across metro areas and sea-change suburbs, located close to hospitals, supermarkets and other amenities. The houses are modern with high-end finishes, targeted at wealthy customers who expect more than TV dinners and Kmart trips in their old age. The communities include gyms, swimming pools, bars, hair salons, community centres, cinemas, and libraries.
It was founded in 2017 by Glen Brown, a former Aveo and RetireAustralia executive, who teamed up with Gaw and GreenFort.
The first facility, Samford Grove, cut the ribbon in 2021 and hosts 131 homes. This was followed by Brookland Robertson a year later, housing 203 units.
Selling like hotcakes
Two other villages – Fairway Carindale and Esperance Hope Island – will finish a two-part opening this year, with a total of 173 and 402 units respectively. Rounding out the portfolio is Maleny Grove, where 95 houses will hang out their shingles next year. The flyer listed a minimum occupancy rate of 99 per cent across all five.
Potential bidders have been told Reside has scored full occupancy on completed homes in South East Queensland, and will benefit from long-term capital growth in the area against low capex. The sale flyer also had the all-too familiar reminders on the sector’s tailwinds – an ageing population, housing shortages and an increasingly wealthy pool of baby boomers.
Over the past decade, Queensland’s mean dwelling price has compounded at 7.8 per cent a year, outstripping the 5.8 per cent national average. The sunshine state’s expected to have a greater proportion of over 75s than rest of the country.
Reside is heading to the auction block after 2025 saw a flurry of dealmaking in the sector. Scape paid $3.85 billion to buy Aveo from Brookfield in the largest direct real estate transaction in Australia’s history, while Infratil-backed RetireAustralia was acquired by Invesco.
On the ASX, land lease communities player GemLife was the year’s biggest IPO, offering a slightly different model to traditional retirement villages. Another player in the sector, Lincoln Place which is owned by Cerberus Capital, is currently seeking buyers.
