The Melbourne residential market downward trend is continuing, but developer Sam Jamieson has chalked up wins at his Fitzroy North project.
The project won approval in January and construction is due to start early in the new year.
JMSN has netted sales of more than $20,000 per sq m on its rs301 project at Fitzroy North in its first month on the market, which Jamieson said pointed to a downsizer market ready to buy now and sell later.
The 26-apartment project on the corner of Rae and Alfred streets is in a tightly held pocket with limited supply.
Jamieson said many downsizer buyers were sitting on equity built up over decades in homes they won’t sell until the right apartment existed.
“These are downsizers, not speculators,” Jamieson said.
“They understand they’re not buying and selling in the same market. Most know they’ll sell what they have in a year-and-a-half to two years, when conditions may look different.
“They’re prepared to make that trade now, for the right building, on the right street.”
Monark Property Partners is the project’s capital partner. Chief investment officer Adam Slade-Jacobson said the project’s location, design quality and understanding of its target market were “key considerations in our decision to partner with JMSN”.
“The early sales results are an encouraging indication of genuine buyer demand,” Slade-Jacobson said.
Jamieson said while the market had felt the aftershocks of Federal tax changes and price compression, “none of it has stopped good product from selling” in Melbourne.
“I put my heart and soul into these developments, and it is great to see it being rewarded.”
Jamieson said buyers were mostly owner-occupiers from the area.
Co-Lab Residential director Hayden Namlu, the selling agent, said buyers were “less worried about the short-term mechanics of buying and selling, and more worried about missing out”.
The state approved the project in the first tranche of its Great Design Fast Track pathway earlier this year.
SINJEN has been tapped as the head contractor and construction is slated to start in early 2027. Completion is expected later in 2028.
Media Coverage
This story was originally written by Taryn Paris and published by The Urban Developer – see the article here