The site is close to the future Yaraville Gardens development, pictured here.
ABR Holdings, which runs the popular Swensen’s ice-cream restaurant chain, has ventured into property development, acquiring a property in Australia for A$20 million (S$20.26 million), reported the Australian Financial Review.
Acquired from Stambo’s Group, the property, a former insulator factory, sits on a 1.5ha site at 2 Banool Avenue in Victoria’s Yaraville area.
ABR Holdings’ decision to speculate on development opportunities in Victoria indicates that the state is still attractive to Asian property developers, even as the government doubled the foreign buyer stamp duty to seven percent on 1 July, and tripled the land tax surcharge to 1.5 percent from 2017.
In an SGX filing, ABR Holdings revealed that the acquisition is subject to various conditions, including securing a permit to develop a minimum of 81 homes on the site within 300 days.
“The group intends to redevelop the property into residential houses for sale,” said Executive Director Ang Lian Seng.
The A$20 million paid for the site included a commission of A$1 million.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
