Daiwa House Industry Co moves on Rawson

Japan’s Daiwa House has forged deeper into the Australian housing market.

Rawson chief executive Matthew Ramaley. Picture: Renee Nowytarger.

Japan’s Daiwa House Industry Co has forged deeper into the Australian housing market with a move to take control of Sydney-based residential housing construction and land development business the Rawson Group.

Founded by the three Rawson brothers, the company started in a garage in Dubbo in 1978 and was expected to generate $400 million in revenue in fiscal 2016 from operations focused on land subdivisions and building homes in Sydney and the ACT.

Rawson Group controls the Rawson Homes, Thrive Homes and Rawson Communities businesses. The overall group started 1188 single-family homes in the 2017 financial year, making it the second-largest detached home builder in NSW. Chief executive Matthew Ramaley saidlast year the business had been structured to allow for a trade sale process or an initial public offering.

Daiwa House said that “moving forward” it would collaborate with the Rawsons to further expand the business.

“Further, we seek to accelerate business expansion in Australia by leveraging the Rawson Group’s experience and knowledge related to the residential construction industry in Australia,” the Japanese group said.

Daiwa House, guided by law firm Baker McKenzie, said the move was in keeping with its plans to grow its overall business so it hit net sales of ¥4 trillion ($47bn) globally, which would entail adopting a policy of “accelerating the expansion of overseas businesses”.

The Japanese company is buying businesses in nations with stable growth prospects, such as the US and Australia, as well as in ASEAN countries, which it said were expected to see medium to long-term growth.

In February this year, Daiwa House acquired Stanley-Martin Communities, a single-family housing business mainly operating in Virginia and the surrounding mid-Atlantic states in the US.

In June last year, Sydney-based EG Funds Management sealed a $160m deal with Daiwa House and Sumitomo Forestry, in the apartment sector. The pair took a 75 per cent share in a residential development site at Drummoyne in the city’s inner west for $33m, which has an eventual project value of more than $160m. EG and the Japanese company earlier teamed on the development of the Flour Mill residential project in Summer Hill, also in the city’s inner west.