- Development purchased for over $6M
- To be largest retirement village in Albury-Wodonga region
- Land lease community model may be considered
Aspen Group (ASX: APZ) today announced the acquisition of Wodonga Gardens Retirement Estate. The move comes as the company has been actively acquiring properties across the year so far, earlier the company purchased student accommodation in Brisbane.
In May, Aspen made its fifth acquisition for the year, Lewis Fields Retirement Village in Strathalbyn (SA) for $2.36 million.
Finance
The Wodonga Gardens Retirement Estate was purchased for $6.01 million, excluding transaction costs. APZ said that equated to about $35,000 per approved site, including the existing 51 dwellings under retirement village contracts.
Existing dwellings are reported by Aspen to have a re-leasing value of around $15.3 million or $300,000 per dwelling, with possible maximum exit fees under current contracts of about $5 million.
Aspen will initially fund the acquisition with debt, selectively redeploying capital from the company’s Perth residential portfolio. The company said it has so far settled the sale of five houses and entered into conditional contracts for another four.
The property
Located in Victoria, the retirement village is close to the border with New South Wales and the city of Albury. It is some 3.5 hours by road to either Melbourne CBD or Canberra and is also serviced by Albury Airport.
The development will be the largest retirement village in the Albury-Wodonga region, spanning 8.8 hectares and approved for 172 houses, 51 of which have been built and leased thus far.
Existing houses are occupied under a loan/lease agreement, with the company considering selling future houses under a land lease community model.
