June 2025 - Thirdi Group

Investing $1.6B for dynamic new community at Charmhaven

Posted on June 26, 2025June 26, 2025 by tgmaster

Developer Third.i Group has proposed a masterplanned community on 200ha of bushland at Charmhaven between the Pacific Hwy and Arizona Rd.

The $1.6B project would deliver up to 2,000 homes with 120ha of protected environmental green space, a new low-fee K-12 school for 1,500 students, public spaces, playing fields and a business park supporting more than 600 new jobs.

Third.i says the aim is to create a “dynamic new community with a focus on liveability, affordability and long-term growth”.

First step is a development application for 56 homes which is now on public exhibition and open for submissions until June 30.

Third.i Group promises no infrastructure costs for the NSW Government under measures introduced in the NSW Budget this week allowing developers to build their own public infrastructure under certain circumstances.

Group Acquisitions Head Florian Caillon said that if approved, rezoning (of the Charmhaven site) would allow them to provide critical, enabling infrastructure.

“This would include roads, water and electricity, which will benefit the wider region – all at no cost to the NSW Government,” he said.

The State Government Budget will also make permanent a 50% land tax discount for build-to-rent developments.

To be eligible, buildings must include at least 50 rental homes, remain under single ownership and management, and offer lease terms of at least three years.

More than 10% of the Charmhaven project will be committed to affordable housing, including rental and shared equity options aimed at supporting essential workers and first-home buyers.

Evolve Housing will handle the 200 affordable homes with workers able to rent them at below-market rates.

Health Services Union NSW Assistant Secretary Lauren Hutchens said members were encouraged by developments that made affordable housing a priority.

“We keep our hospitals running day and night, but we’re being pushed further and further away from our workplaces by skyrocketing housing costs on the Central Coast,” she said.

The Charmhaven project would be the largest housing project on the Central Coast and could deliver almost a quarter of the NSW Government’s target of 9,400 new homes in the region by 2029.

Central Coast’s population is expected to surge to 404,250 by 2041, putting increased pressure on housing supply.

Third.i Group is hopeful that the first new homes for the masterplan could be delivered within 36 months pending planning approvals.

Thirdi Plans $1.6bn Central Coast Housing Community

Posted on June 24, 2025June 24, 2025 by tgmaster

Developer Thirdi has proposed a masterplanned community that promises no infrastructure costs for the NSW Government on the Central Coast.

The 200ha Charmhaven Project site at Charmhaven on the Central Coast is located between the Pacific Highway and Arizona Road and is expected to cost $1.6 billion.

It would deliver up to 2000 homes with 120ha of protected environmental green space, a new school and a business park.

More than 10 per cent of the project will be allocated to affordable housing for essential workers with the NSW Government not required to pay for any infrastructure costs.

“If approved, the rezoning will allow us to provide critical, enabling infrastructure such as roads, water and electricity, which will benefit the wider region—all at no cost to the NSW Government,” Thirdi acquisitions head Florian Caillon said.

Evolve Housing will handle the 200 affordable homes with workers able to rent the homes at below-market rates.

“Our members keep our hospitals running day and night, but they are being pushed further and further away from their workplaces by skyrocketing housing costs on the Central Coast,” Health Services Union NSW assistant secretary Lauren Hutchens said.

“That’s why we’re encouraged by developments that make affordable housing a priority.”

The school, if approved, will be a low-fee independent Christian school for 1500 students.

The Charmhaven Project would be the largest housing project on the Central Coast and could deliver almost a quarter of the NSW Government’s target of 9400 new homes in the region by 2029.

Thirdi is hopeful that the first new homes for the masterplan could be delivered within 36 months pending planning approvals.

The Central Coast’s population is expected to surge to 404,250 people by 2041, putting increased pressure on housing supply.

Thirdi’s current development pipeline exceeds $4 billion with completed projects across Sydney and Newcastle.

Why Australia’s biggest office landlord is building luxe apartments

Posted on June 12, 2025June 12, 2025 by eleni@thirdigroup.com.au

ASX-listed Dexus, once best-known as the nation’s biggest office landlord, is planting its flag in residential development with a series of projects including a luxury apartment block opposite a golf course in Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

Still in the development phase, the Mona Vale project will include more than 40generously sized two and three-bed apartments in a development worth an estimated $140 million when complete.

Opposite the Bayview golf club, the project is expected to appeal to cashed-up, golf-loving downsizers, many of whom may already live in the area.

The reasons for the shift by one of the country’s biggest commercial property players into the broader “living” sector are twofold.

Dexus was already rapidly diversifying its portfolio beyond traditional commercial real estate as it pursues its aim to be a manager of real assets. That strategy was boosted by the takeover of much of AMP Capital’s local property and infrastructure platform three years ago, including interests in airports , renewable energy and a student accommodation portfolio.

More immediately, the swing into residential is about applying the Dexus platform to a massive opportunity, said Jason Howes, its recently appointed executive general manager for fund capital and product development.

“We are playing into a supply constraint. The residential investment window is closing quickly,” he told The Australian Financial Review.

“When we think about the ‘living’ sector more broadly, what we have is a supply crisis right across the living thematic.

“We’re accessing that thematic through student accommodation, through seniors living, through build-to-sell apartments, through land subdivisions. It’s about accessing that supply constraint.”

Dexus has launched a series of opportunity-style funds, which typically involvehigher risk, to add to its stable of wholesale funds which hold office towers, warehouses, malls and more recently healthcare real estate.

The first cab off the rank, Dexus Real Estate Partnership I, is fully invested after raising about $475 million in equity. Its portfolio is around twice that size, after factoring in gearing.

Raising for its second, DREP II, is well on its way to an initial target of $600 million.That target could extend to $1 billion, making the final portfolio worth as much as$2 billion, including leverage.

Of the 15 separate investments in the first fund, 12 were in equity, with the remainder involving credit. Along with logistics, the deals are dominated by investment into housing of various types, including the repurposing of an oldBrisbane office block into a $500 million, 1200-bed student dorm.

The first fund has also invested into a 178-apartment retirement living venture nextto Merewether Golf Club in Newcastle, a 13-storey apartment block in inner-cityMelbourne, greenfield housing lots in Sydney’s west and 150 unsold apartments from developments in Melbourne.

The DREP funds are targeting a 15 per cent internal rate of return. The executionrate for the Dexus team as they comb the market for opportunities is less than 4per cent, an indicator of how many potential transactions they are prepared to reject.

Fuelling that tremendous churn rate is the prospect of outsized returns – known as“alpha” in investment terms – for early movers in the next housing boom, according to Howes.

“In commercial real estate investing, investment vintage is a powerful driver of alpha in returns. So the investment window or vintage is critical,” he said.

“If you overlay where we are in the market, with interest rate cuts that are priced in, we would expect a demand and price response to those interest rate cuts.

“From our perspective the window in which we have to get set in the residential investment space, it’s closing quickly.

“We planned for this, which is why we have spent so much time and effort getting set in a broad living exposure in advance of this change in the market.”