Prominent Australian businessman and CEO of Gurner Group, Ahmed Fahour, joined Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan, Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas and Victorian Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny at the property group’s 27,000sqm Docklands mega-site today, to support the State Government’s housing plan.
Following the State Government’s recent housing announcements, the Premier, Treasurer and Minister joined Fahour on-site to highlight the importance of higher-density, amenity rich projects in the inner city that will deliver new homes to more buyers.
The Docklands mega-site, which will one day house over 1,100 apartments, a retail and hospitality precinct, 4-star short-stay hotel and another premier 5-star hotel, had its first stage approved by Victorian Minister for Planning Sonya Kilkenny on 17 October.
Residents at Elysium Fields can expect to enjoy on-site anti-ageing facilities and equipment such as cryotherapy, IV infusions, dry and infrared sauna, red light therapy, grounding and PEMF beds.
Homes are designed to include filtered air purifiers, filtered water, circadian lighting and optional recovery upgrades, as well as natural anti-microbial materials and other holistic design practices into both the public spaces and private residences.
The project will be the beneficiary of the off-the-plan stamp duty cuts that the Allan Government announced in recent weeks, which would slash the stamp duty on a $620,000 apartment from circa $32,000 to around $4,0001.
Quotes attributable to Treasurer Tim Pallas
“Construction can start now on hundreds of homes to buy or rent in Melbourne thanks to our stamp duty concessions.”
Gurner Group’s CEO Ahmed Fahour has been vocal in his support of the government’s plan, citing CoreLogic Hedonic Home Value Index data which revealed that Melbourne lagged behind the rest of the country.
The Hedonic Home Value Index, which was released in October 20242, revealed that Melbourne was the worst-performing capital city, with values only rising 9.9 percent from the onset of COVID to September 2024 – compared with Sydney (29.2 percent), Brisbane (66.4 percent), Adelaide (69 percent) and Perth (74.6 percent).
GURNER™, which has an $7 billion pipeline of projects in Victoria, acknowledges that there is more to do to bring productivity back into the market, but sees this is as the first big step towards the state’s housing market recovery, according to CEO Ahmed Fahour.
“The message the Victorian Government is sending is clear – our state is open for business.”
“We are supportive of the recent announcements on stamp duty relief, and we recognise the housing plan as a major step forward.”
“This is a really exciting time for property investors, and we’ve already seen a sharp uptick in enquiry and interest following the off-the-plan stamp duty concessions – interstate investors are getting in early to make sure they’re ready for the upcoming increase in demand.”
“With more activity and planning reforms helping to ease the systemic challenges facing the housing market, the next issue that must be resolved is construction and finance costs – which continue to make it challenging for Victorian projects,” Fahour said.
Hamilton Marino has been appointed to build the first tower of the $1.7 billion “Elysium Fields” project, which is a Joint Venture between GURNER™ and City Harbour – a consortium that includes the Liberman family. Early construction works are expected to commence next month, prior to the public launch of sales, which is earmarked for early next year.
1 https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/plan-stamp-duty-concessions-build-more-homes
2 https://www.corelogic.com.au/ data/assets/pdf_file/0012/24303/CoreLogic-HVI-Oct-2024-FINAL.pdf
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