The Macquarie Asset Management fund-backed Local Residential Turnkey Venture has reached its final close, bringing the Australian housing venture’s total assets under management to more than A$1.1bn (€667.1m).

An unnamed global pension fund has committed to the venture which has already deployed more than A$650m on two assets in Melbourne and has over 1,300 apartments.

The Melbourne assets are a 406-unit project in South Melbourne and a 425-unit project in Box Hill – both including a minimum 10% commitment to impact housing.

Dan McLennan, Local co-CEO and founder said traditional residential developers were increasingly looking for alternatives to deliver their projects in the faltering residential pre-sale market.

“Local seeks to partner with developers to unlock their sites via build-to-rent, providing them with a fixed take-out price on completion, while leveraging Local’s design, development and property management expertise at each stage of the process.”

“For our investors, this means we are taking on reduced development risk and delivering a bespoke build-to-rent project within two years versus three to four years in a traditional development model. The model we’re pursuing is suited to current economic conditions as our competitors have struggled against economic headwinds.”

Matt Berg, Local co-CEO and founder, said: “It will be another big year as we see the market window being now for investors to tap these turnkey opportunities and are in due diligence with investors on seed assets for a successor venture. In addition, we are exploring opportunities to deliver affordable housing, where we believe there is a significant opportunity to deliver tangible social benefits without government subsidies.’’

With a significant pipeline of turnkey opportunities across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, Local intended to continue to work with its capital partners to access these opportunities, he said.

To read the latest IPE Real Assets magazine click here.

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