Two NRAS apartment blocks bought by investors for $20 million
Two apartment blocks in Sydney's west benefiting from the now abandoned National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) have been snapped up by investors for $20 million.
The deals come amid a rise in renting due to the affordability crisis in Sydney.
The two new apartment blocks are a 20-unit property at 1 Santley Crescent, Kingswood (above), and the 25-unit block at 530-532 Woodville Road, Guildford, The Australian Financial Review reported.
The NRAS was introduced in 2008 to encourage builders and investors to provide more affordable rental homes. The scheme offers financial incentives for up to 10 years if rents are set at least 20% below market rates.
The scheme was withdrawn in 2014 after it failed to produce the target number of 50,000 rental homes and the target was reduced to about 38,000.
According to the Department of Social Services, there are 137 housing providers, including property developers, not-for-profit organisations and community housing providers, participating in the scheme.
About 34,000 are still to be completed as at April 2017.
Online rental portal Rent.com.au recently noted the number of searching renters on its platform, increased to 125,000, or at a rate of 500 a day.
Now, with yields dropping and the rental market strong, investors are looking at projects with NRAS schemes.
The selling agents for both the projects were JLL's Dylan McEvoy and David Matthews.
"Investments like these, which still have seven to eight years of NRAS incentive payments, with a great exit strategy to sell as standard apartments at the completion of the NRAS are obviously highly sought after," Matthews told the AFR.
The trend of institutional provision of rental properties is also starting to pick up in the form of build-to-rent properties – high quality apartments built and serviced by one single corporate landlord.
