Savills expects high demand for boarding houses with development approval as NSW seek room limits
Boarding houses already with development approval are in high demand, according to the estate agency Savills.
The spike in interest comes after the NSW government has sought to limit boarding houses to a maximum of 12 rooms per site.
They are also seeking to limit boarding houses to just 0.5 car spaces per boarding room.
Savills Australia is seeing an influx of property owners looking to offload their assets and capitalise on the market in response to market uncertainty surrounding the new legislation.
Nick Tuxworth, associate director for the metropolitan & regional Sales team, said he expected to see a spike in prices for properties that have already received development approval.
“We anticipate demand for such sites to build from developers who see them as high-yielding investments with 15-20 per cent returns and low vacancy rates,” he said.
"The tough rules exist to ensure boarding houses are only approved where they are close to public transport and adequate additional parking, and are compatible with council rules on density and building height”.
“The reason for the 12-boarding-room limit on boarding house developments in the R2 Zone is to address community concerns about amenity impacts, such as overlooking, overshadowing, and the loss of on-street car parking,” he said.
The metropolitan & regional sales team recently sold a Jesmond site (top) for $1.175million, which had approval for 40 rooms, to a Sydney developer looking for “something more affordable in rural NSW”.
Director Nick Lower said many developers have been caught out by the changes.
“This market has been regulated by the government in the past 12 months, which has caught many developers out, and has forced changes in their DAs,” director Nick Lower said.
“We are finding several owners wanting to offload their sites due to these regulations so it’s a good time to be selling, as there is huge demand for approved sites with future uncertainty.”
