Torrens-titled new homes circling back into inner-city Sydney

The development approved project, to be named The Gentry, is a kilometre south of the future Green Square township and retail epicentre and will feature standalone heritage-facade homes converted from industrial warehouses.

While Thirdi is still in the early stages of planning the project, future buyers can expect to pay between $2.1 million and $2.3 million for new-build 130sq m to 140sq m houses with a basement link to a garage, a rooftop garden as well as wine storage areas. SJB Architects have been engaged to design the project.

At these prices, the townhouses will be comparable to current apartment prices in Sydney but they benefit from one thing: they are not part of a strata corporation. Owners will not have to manage any joint property.

Torrens-titled brand new houses in inner-city areas are hard to find, with land values forcing developers to move upwards into more dense residential towers for projects to be feasible. Ordinarily, buyers flock to outer suburbs for more standard Torrens-titled house and land packages.

As prices of sites start to change, as the boom of construction starts to ease, standalone Torrens-titled projects like The Gentry will become more common down the track, Thirdi marketing director Luke Berry said.

It is understood that Sotheby’s International is also marketing another Torrens-titled project in the same area.

Brisbane-based developer Metro Property Development’s Sydney team, which has been busy with smaller lot 300sq m house and land packages in growth centres like Spring Farm and Catherine Field in Sydney’s south-west, is also looking to replicate its small-build model to create Torrens-titled homes closer to the CBD.

Metro’s Phil Leahy said the company can do this easily through its building arm Creation Homes and the company is looking for sites.

On The Gentry, Thirdi worked with property management company Milligan Group to secure the site with Milligan responsible for the warehouse amalgamation. This project will be a deviation from Thirdi’s staple apartment portfolio which includes the Paragon on Pyrmont in the CBD, which launches this weekend.