Frasers Centrepoint acquires 13.7-hectare site in Sydney

Frasers Property Australia bought S$97.8mln lot from Royal Rehab to strengthen Fraser brand in Australia.

Frasers Centrepoint Limited (FCL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fraser and Neave, Limited, announced on Friday that its Australasian property arm – Frasers Property Australia - has acquired a 13.7 hectare site (about 1.5 million sq ft) in Sydney from the Royal Rehabilitation Centre Sydney (Royal Rehab) for A$82.5 million (S$97.8 million). Royal Rehab is an internationally recognised, premier rehabilitation and disability facility within New South Wales. according to a Fraser and Neave report.

The acquisition will increase FCL’s land bank in Australasia from about 8 million sq ft to 9 million sq ft. The group is currently planning and developing over 5,800 homes in Australia and New Zealand.

Mr Lim Ee Seng, Chief Executive Officer of FCL, said, “Frasers Centrepoint Limited is confident of the property market in Sydney. This strategic acquisition will not only boost our pipeline of developments in Australia, but more importantly, strengthen the ‘Frasers’ brand as we continue to make further inroads into Australasia.”

The site which is located 12km North-West of the Sydney CBD on the border of Ryde and Putney is easily accessible via Victoria Road. Besides building a 2.3-hectare open space for community use, the approved Concept Plan allows for the development of almost 800 residences, including houses, town houses, and apartments. Roads, traffic calming devices and other infrastructure will also be built as part of the project.

The publicly available community facilities such as sport and recreation facilities, a child-care centre and a community meeting room, will be jointly developed by Frasers Property Australia and Royal Rehab.

When completed, one can expect a master planned residential community in a landscaped, open space setting with significant, publicly available community facilities in an area well-serviced by retail, education and transport infrastructure.

Frasers Property Australia will immediately begin preparing submissions to the New South Wales’ Department of Planning for infrastructure and the first stage of residential construction.

Work on the public parklands will commence by the end of 2010.