Billionaire Sam Arnaout gears up to launch final stage of $1bn Newcastle East End Village site

The billionaire developer and casino owner says he has hundreds of buyers ready to buy despite another interest rate hike as he gears up to launch final stage of the $1bn East End Village.

The final stage of the East End Village in Newcastle is set to be launched.

Billionaire property developer and casino owner Sam Arnaout is gearing up to launch the final stages of his $1 billion East End Village housing development in Newcastle claiming he has hundreds of local buyers on the waiting list despite this week’s tenth interest rate rise.

With apartment prices starting from $750,000 and climbing to nearly $3m for luxury penthouses Mr Arnaout is confident the units will easily meet the 50 per cent pre-sales requirement needed by his company Iris Capital to trigger construction.

Mr Arnaout argues that Newcastle, 170 km north of Sydney, is almost a bubble economy and is largely immune from the suburbs hit by hard by successive mortgage increases.

“I feel that the timing isn’t ideal from a macro or geo political standpoint, but Newcastle has its own standing. And I would like to hope that (already) we have a buyer for each apartment,” Mr Arnaout told The Australian in an interview on Tuesday.

The inner city Newcastle housing project, the city’s biggest rejuvenation project, has been one of the biggest successes for Mr Arnaout, who has assembled a diverse portfolio of developments over the past 25 years.

East End Village, Newcastle.

These include the Queensgate redevelopment in Sydney’s Potts Point, the upcoming Oceania complex in Sydney’s Manly, the Victoria & Albert development at Broadbeach on Queensland’s Gold Coast, as well as control of 35 pubs including the Steyne in Manly, a string of Ibis-branded budget hotels as well as two casinos including Lasseter’s in Alice Springs and another recently acquired casino in Canberra.

In an interview with The Australian on Tuesday Mr Arnaout would not be drawn on Lasseter’s given Alice Springs spiking crime rates.

But he was more effusive about Newcastle saying despite the successive interest rate rises there’s strong pent up demand for housing in the East End Village and any re-sales from stages one and two had been strong.

Billionaire Sam Arnaout said buyers are still hungry to buy property despite interest rates. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

“People who have bought in stage one and two have made significant returns, the capital gains have been significant for them,” Mr Arnaout said, adding that most new buyers are downsizers or rightsizers moving from within the area attracted by the views and the luxury accommodation.

The gross end value of the final stages of the East End Village has been put at $450m and independent project marketers, Urban Activation, have been hired to oversee the marketing and sales across the entire complex.

On completion the East End Village will span four city blocks in Newcastle’s inner city area.

Set across five buildings and incorporating original heritage architecture, the second stage of East End Village is expected to be completed later this year.

Stage three and four is a collaboration between three architectural firms, SJB, DBJ and

Curious Practice – all of which won a design competition for the best design

Excellence.

One-bedroom residences are priced from $750,000 while two-bedroom units are priced from $1.15m and three-bedrooms are priced from $2.75m.