Author: tgmaster

If you’re thinking about buying an off-the-plan apartment, one of the ways to visualise what it will look like is to visit the display suite. While previously display suites were little more than a demountable with a couple of placards, these days much more thought goes into making them a sensory experience for potential purchasers.

While unusual, there are instances of people visiting a display suite and buying on the spot. That’s what happened with property development company Thirdi Group at one of its Sydney-based projects – something they’re attributing in part to their innovative display suite experience.

Thirdi’s marketing and sales director Luke Berry cites a couple that visited its development 88onRegent display suite in Redfern without even realising it was a display suite due to its innovative inclusion of a fully functioning cafe.

Jonathan Richards (right), pictured with Kirsten Stanisich of SJB, says it is worthwhile for developers to build a display suite to help showcase their end product. Photo: SJB Interiors

“They came in just to have breakfast at the 88onRegent Pop Up cafe we installed as part of the suite,” he says. “But they had a look around and fell in love with it. They signed an expression of interest and a couple of hours later they called back and said they wanted to buy it.”

Berry says the cafe addition to their 88onRedfern suite was born from a desire to make buyers feel more comfortable and relaxed while visiting, and removing the dry, sales atmosphere traditionally associated with display suites.

While buying on the spot is unusual, it underpins the role display suites play in influencing sales.

Buyers at the launch of Barangaroo apartments in 2013. Photo: Jacky Ghossein

“Some developments sell just using CGIs (computer generated images),” says Jonathan Richards, director of interiors with architects SJB. “But for developments that have a unique perspective, are design focused and architecturally led, it’s worthwhile to build a display suite. It demonstrates to the purchasers how great the spaces will be and sometimes you can’t get this across just by using floor plans.”

Richards adds that display suites also show the confidence a developer has in building what they will finally construct. “With buying off-the-plan there are certain vagaries around what you are going to get,” he says. “If you just buy from a floor plan it could be interpreted in many ways. A display suite demonstrates what the architecture and interiors will be like; it’s locked in and people know what to expect.”

The display suite for Thirdi’s latest luxury Sydney development – the Paragon of Pyrmont, comprising 21 premium residences and 10 luxury apartments – aims to give the target market a complete sensory experience.

A couple came in to the dining space at 88onRegent’s display suite just to have breakfast and later that day bought one of the apartments. Photo: Thirdi Group

“The type of person who will buy into the Paragon of Pyrmont is accustomed to being treated in a certain way so what we provide within our display suite reflects this,” Berry says. “From the type of food and wine and how visitors are greeted on arrival. By building something that is beautiful you are respecting your purchaser.”

At 108 Miller Street and opened on June 10, the Paragon of Pyrmont display suite has an accompanying bar, Prosecco, operated by the team behind gourmet pizza franchise, Made in Italy.

Berry believes the display suite is playing a greater role in influencing people’s purchasing decisions.

A bar and dining room is part of a new Pyrmont development’s display suite. Photo: Esteban La Tessa

“Traditionally, display suites were quite sterile,” he says. “They were also environments where people knew they were going to be sold to and felt under pressure. Now they offer ‘experiences’. For example, we incorporate food and beverage vendors in ours and add music to create an experience where there is less pressure on the visitor.”

Berry says people can come in and grab a drink or something to eat and wander around the display at leisure. “It’s a more relaxed atmosphere and if you build a very good offering, people get a sense of what it’s like to live in the area.”

Creating the right atmosphere is a crucial part of the display suite. Richards says when his company is engaged to build one, a lot of thought goes into what the design should feel like.

Paragon of Pyrmont will have 21 premium residences and 10 luxury apartments. Photo: Esteban La Tessa

“We put a lot of effort into selecting materials and resolving details and making sure every project we do is unique and special to suit that client,” he says. “When a potential purchaser visits a display suite I want them to sense the magic of the design that we have produced.”

He adds that hopefully the buyers love it enough to buy an apartment. “But the first thing I want to do is convey all the effort we’ve put into the design and hope it comes across in a way that will influence their decision.”

Wanted: off-the-plan apartments with three or more bedrooms, luxury finishes, oodles of storage and entertaining spaces that won’t depress the heck out of buyers downsizing from large family homes.

Luke Berry, the director of sales and marketing for developer THIRDiGroup, describes the dearth of this style of apartment in Sydney as “the missing middle”.

Occupying a slice of the market between cookie-cutter small units and prestige penthouses, spacious high-end apartments and townhouses have been absent – or devilishly hard to find – in new developments in inner-ring suburbs of Sydney over the past few years.

Sydney has plenty of ‘cookie-cutter’ units built at low cost, but Luke Berry of THIRDi says many buyers want more. Photo: Louie Douvis

“Last year, everyone was focused on SEPP 65 boxes,” Berry says, referring to state planning laws that allow developers to increase the number of apartments if a project meets certain design guidelines.

With investors and first-home buyers in mind, many developers have concentrated on reducing costs to provide a more impressive return on investment and the lowest possible mortgage repayments.

“This in our opinion created a race to the bottom, where architects were instructed to get approvals as fast as possible, with as many apartments as possible, to capitalise on this unprecedented interest in real estate,” Berry says.

Paragon apartments in Pyrmont are THIRDi’s answer to “the missing middle” in Sydney’s apartment market. Photo: Artist’s impression

“This compromised design, lowered the level of finishes and sacrificed space, the three things that are important to the other key buying market that had been patiently waiting for the music to stop on ‘tick box’ apartment selling: the established owner-occupier market.”

It typically takes about two years from development approval to construction completion. Many projects opening their doors to new residents today were planned before developers appreciated the magnitude of demand from cashed-up owner-occupiers, including empty nesters eager to ditch their big family homes without also ditching luxury and lifestyle.

Wanted: off-the-plan apartments with three or more bedrooms, luxury finishes, oodles of storage and entertaining spaces that won’t depress the heck out of buyers downsizing from large family homes.

Luke Berry, the director of sales and marketing for developer THIRDiGroup, describes the dearth of this style of apartment in Sydney as “the missing middle”.

Occupying a slice of the market between cookie-cutter small units and prestige penthouses, spacious high-end apartments and townhouses have been absent – or devilishly hard to find – in new developments in inner-ring suburbs of Sydney over the past few years.

Sydney has plenty of ‘cookie-cutter’ units built at low cost, but Luke Berry of THIRDi says many buyers want more. Photo: Louie Douvis

“Last year, everyone was focused on SEPP 65 boxes,” Berry says, referring to state planning laws that allow developers to increase the number of apartments if a project meets certain design guidelines.

With investors and first-home buyers in mind, many developers have concentrated on reducing costs to provide a more impressive return on investment and the lowest possible mortgage repayments.

“This in our opinion created a race to the bottom, where architects were instructed to get approvals as fast as possible, with as many apartments as possible, to capitalise on this unprecedented interest in real estate,” Berry says.

Paragon apartments in Pyrmont are THIRDi’s answer to “the missing middle” in Sydney’s apartment market. Photo: Artist’s impression

“This compromised design, lowered the level of finishes and sacrificed space, the three things that are important to the other key buying market that had been patiently waiting for the music to stop on ‘tick box’ apartment selling: the established owner-occupier market.”

It typically takes about two years from development approval to construction completion. Many projects opening their doors to new residents today were planned before developers appreciated the magnitude of demand from cashed-up owner-occupiers, including empty nesters eager to ditch their big family homes without also ditching luxury and lifestyle.

It goes some way towards explaining anecdotal evidence from agents and developers that more buyers are snapping up smaller adjoining off-the-plan apartments with a view to removing walls to create spacious new homes.

Paragon will be a collection of 31 apartments and townhouses. Photo: Artist’s impression

“They might live in a $5 million to $10 million home on the city fringe, for example Mosman, Balmain or the eastern suburbs, and they’re looking for an inner-city location they can buy now and retire to,” Berry says. “They’ve lived in a big, beautiful home, they’ve raised a family and they’re used to having large living areas and al fresco dining spaces. They still want to feel like they have a flowing, open-plan property.”

With this market in mind, THIRDi Group is about to launch Paragon of Pyrmont, a collection of 31 apartments and townhouses, all but two of which have three or more bedrooms.

A commercial building will be knocked down to make way for 11 apartments, 20 townhouses and two commercial spaces in two low-rise buildings designed by SJB Architects, with interiors by SJB and Coco Republic and landscaping by Black Beetle.

Paragon’s facade fronts are designed to maximise space and natural light. Photo: Artist’s impression

The inclusions list features a bevy of high-end suppliers. Bang & Olufsen entertainment units will rise from custom cabinetry at the press of a button, Gaggenau appliances are integrated into bespoke joinery and there are plans for TESLA PowerWalls and PowerPacks, private wine cellars and home automation technology fit for a secret agent.

Jonathan Richards, a director of interior design at SJB, says the project takes as its inspiration Pyrmont’s gritty personality, forged in its industrial past, beside the gleaming CBD.

“Rather than a monolithic new block, the architecture gives space to the public domain with open landscaped public walkways between the new buildings,” Richards says.

“We have designed the apartment interiors at Paragon to capture a sense of raw luxury,” interior designer Jonathan Richards says. Photo: Artist’s impression

The facade fronts are designed to maximise space and natural light. All apartments have floor to ceiling glazing spanning at least one, if not two street frontages. Articulated Nordic copper and bronzed screening allows residents to choose between privacy or inner-city views.

“We have designed the apartment interiors at Paragon to capture a sense of raw luxury,” Richards says. “These are not showy spaces – they have understated elegance with polished concrete floors, sweeping curved white walls and timber ceilings.”

Paragon is also expected to appeal to high net worth individuals, young professional singles and couples with no children and wealthy Australian-based Chinese buyers.

Incentives for downsizers announced in the 2017 federal budget are expected to increase the demand for “middle market” apartments.Photo: Stefan Postles

Agent Ged Rockliff, head of residential for Savills, echoes Berry’s observation that there is a shortage of high-end, off-the-plan apartments, driven largely by lowly geared or debt-free downsizers who value privacy, seclusion and space.

“There are more buyers competing for small and smaller amounts of stock,” Rockliff says.

Location, as always, is another important factor. Pyrmont has undergone a remarkable transformation from harbourside hub of industry to lifestyle hotspot. Today, apartment buildings from the 1990s share the suburb with quaint Victorian terraces and ultra-modern office buildings.

The light rail stops at The Star casino. A crop of hip cafes, bars and restaurants has opened on Harris Street, Darling Harbour is shedding its daggy 1980s image and the Bays precinct, including Sydney Fish Market, is set for a dramatic revamp – all this and Paragon is less than 1.5 kilometres from Pitt Street Mall.