Qld government buys Tanah Merah Village from Aveo for affordable housing

The Queensland government has purchased a vacant retirement village, with plans to transform it into more social housing.

The Queensland government has purchased its third former Freedom community from retirement village giant Aveo Group, as part of a multi-billion dollar emergency and social housing strategy.

The State of Queensland Department of Housing paid $44m including GST for the vacant Tanah Merah Village in Loganholme, south of Brisbane

Located at 3745 Pacific Highway, Tanah Merah Village sits on a 2.3ha site that was developed over three stages in 2008, 2010 and 2018.

Once known as Tree Tops the village comprises 124 apartments, a large community centre, a fully equipped commercial kitchen, a pool, an AV room, a salon and a library. Included was also a 6297sq m land parcel offering further development.

Aveo purchased Freedom Aged Care in 2016 and the state government bought the closed Aveo Freedom Aged Care Clayfield, 6km northeast of Brisbane’s CBD, for $9.4m in 2022 and paid $10.6m in late 2022 for a former Freedom aged care centre in Toowoomba.

The state government paid $44m including GST for the Tanah Merah Village at 3745 Pacific Highway, Loganholme.

CBRE’s Will Carman, Adelaide O’Brien of CBRE’s Brisbane Metropolitan team and Marcello Caspani-Muto, Sandro Peluso and Jimmy Tat of CBRE’s Australian Healthcare & Social Infrastructure brokered the Tanah Merah Village deal on behalf of Aveo.

Mr Carman said given the record low residential vacancy level in Loganholme, the property was highly sought after and one of their most contested campaigns of 2023.

“The State of Queensland intends to use the site for affordable housing. While offers higher than the sale price were received, Aveo proceeded with the State of Queensland due to the heightened social need for this infrastructure,” he said.

Ms O’Brien said the property was available in one line and drew interest from multiple sectors including build-to-rent, private residential, student accommodation and social and affordable housing.

The sale translates to $354,839 including GST per apartment which included 85 one-bed apartments and 39 two-bed apartments.

On top of a $5bn budget for social and affordable housing the state government last year set aside $64.3m to purchase and lease emergency accommodation facilities in Brisbane.

The Menso Southbank Hotel in South Brisbane has been purchased by the Queensland government to house people at risk of homelessness.

This week the state government announced it had purchased the vacant eight-story Menso Southbank Hotel at 68 Cordelia St, South Brisbane, which will be transformed into self-contained social housing units for people at risk of homelessness.

The hotel was developed by Susan Menso and was sold for a reported $27m, will be transformed into 20 two-bedroom units and 32 studio units aimed at families and pregnant women.

Housing minister Meaghan Scanlon said since 2015, they have delivered thousands of homes with their Big Housing Build program.

“But while we get on with our Big Build, we’ve also been buying and leasing motels, hotels and former retirement villages to help more Queenslanders into a home sooner,” she said.

Ms Scanlon said the former Menso Southbank Hotel will have a huge impact for families – a number of whom may have been staying in emergency accommodation.

“We will now modify the hotel, ensuring that all the suites are converted into self-contained units and appropriate supports are made available on site for those families that’ll soon be calling it home.” she said.

Last year the government purchased the former 84-room Park Hotel in Spring Hill and a 23-room inner city hotel while a motor inn in Hamilton was leased for youth accommodation and an apartment complex in Gladstone in central Queensland was transformed into public housing.

It has also bought vacant aged care property in Rothwell, north of Brisbane for $5.1m and another in Redlands, south east of the city, for $10.6m.