Wolfdene Launches Horizontal ‘Built to Rent’ Program
Wolfdene – one of Australia’s biggest private developers with a $3b pipeline in Victoria and WA – has unveiled the first homes constructed as part of its ambitious horizontal ‘Built to Rent’ (BTR) strategy.
Located at ‘Brompton’, a 100-hectare community in Melbourne’s South-eastern growth corridor, stage one of the BTR program will see the completion and leasing of 50 turnkey properties.
Representing a diverse mix of housing options, these homes range from traditional single and double house and land packages on conventional land lots, to two, three, and four-bedroom townhouses designed by DKO Architects.
This injection of rental properties is poised to alleviate some pressure on Melbourne’s rental market, which continues to grapple with supply shortages.
Wolfdene’s foray into the BTR sector underscores a broader trend among Australian developers to explore vertical and horizontal rental property integration within the residential market. The strategy allows developers to retain ownership and management of rental properties, ensuring consistent revenue streams and control over asset quality and tenant satisfaction.
The BTR model, relatively new in the Australian context but well-established in international markets like the United States and United Kingdom, offers renters high-quality, professionally managed accommodation with secure leases.
“There is a significant portion of the population unable to buy into the property market who harbour ambitions to live in quality homes in well-serviced suburbs with established amenity where they can be valuable contributors to a community they identify with—across all sub-sections of the market whether this be downsizers, retirees, or families,” said Michael Goldthorp, Managing Director of Wolfdene.
“With ambitious immigration targets slated at a Federal Government level and the supply issues unlikely to improve any time soon, Wolfdene will continue to add to its BTR portfolio in the areas in which is develops,” he said.
Phase 2 of Wolfdene’s BTR program will inject a further 50 homes into the Melbourne rental market in mid-late 2025.
