Apartments specialist Blackburne achieved $62 million worth of sales in one weekend at its latest project in Claremont, with the results confirming strong demand for western suburbs apartments.
Apartments specialist Blackburne achieved $62 million worth of sales in one weekend at its latest project in Claremont, with the results confirming strong demand for western suburbs apartments.
The developer launched formal marketing late last month at its $100 million Essence project, which will be the fifth apartment product to be built at LandCorp’s Claremont on the Park.
Blackburne managing director Paul Blackburne said more than 550 people attended the project’s marketing launch, with downsizers from the western suburbs comprising a large proportion of buyers.
Mr Blackburne said he expected all of the remaining apartments to sell out at Essence by the end of the month, at a time when others in the market were struggling to attract the necessary pre-sales to obtain development finance.
Construction of the project has been brought forward and will likely begin in October, rather than the project’s original mid-2018 target, after Blackburne called for tenders midway through last month.
Mr Blackburne said the project, which will become the fourth Blackburne project to start building in the past 12 months, demonstrated the pent-up demand for apartment stock, particularly in the more affluent western suburbs.
“The impression out there is that it’s a tough market, but what this project shows is that if you have a high-quality product at a good price in a good location, and if you’ve got a track record of building high-quality projects that are well managed through to completion, then there is a market there,” Mr Blackburne told Business News.
“But there has also been a lack of really prime A-grade sites around Perth, and this is one of them.
“If you had 10 sites like this around centres like Claremont and Subiaco, all of them would sell, even in this market, it’s just there is not the supply.”
Mr Blackburne said along with a good location, developers needed to go the extra mile for buyers.
At Essence, Blackburne spent $1 million on a comprehensive sales centre and plans to spend $2 million on the building’s common facilities, including a rooftop dining terrace, wine cellars and a bespoke iPad application for residents.
“The reason you have to do that is that, if people are going to spend $1 million off the plan and sign a contract, they need to get a lot of detail on what they are going to get,” Mr Blackburne said.
“They want to see, touch and feel the kitchen and bathroom, and they really want to know the developer.
“It’s a much more sophisticated market.”
