Mirvac's fast-tracked projects finding eager buyers in Melbourne and Sydney

Era, the 40-storey Chatswood residential tower (pictured below), is now 96% sold. Mirvac only received state government approval for the development in early March. The company fast-tracked the design to be ready for construction in only three months after planning approval was received.

Some 94% of the development was sold in less than 11 hours at its initial weekend release in March earlier this year. The initial apartments sold equalled $273.5 million in exchanged contracts.

“Our ability to fast-track this development to meet market demand illustrates our competitive advantage in developing high density product,” Mirvac managing director Nick Collishaw told the shareholders’ annual general meeting.

Construction commenced in June 2011 and is scheduled for completion in 2014.

In August Mirvac noted that it would look at "specific opportunities" for overseas marketing of some of its projects following the popularity of Era with Asian buyers.

"We have carried out overseas marketing in the past but it has never been a core part of our strategy and, indeed, when you look at Era at Chatswood, we had less than 8% of FIRB [Foreign Investment Review Board] approvals," Collishaw told analysts.

"We have a stronger Asian influence right now, but the fact is the majority of them are local buyers or using local cash."

Mirvac’s Yarra Point (pictured above), at Yarra’s Edge in the Docklands precinct in Melbourne, is now 78% sold. It was launched in October 2010 with a scheduled 2013 completion.

It sits among several apartment developments that have been fast-tracked as Mirvac focuses its offering as mid-price points, as typified by projects such as Yarra Towers in Melbourne and Era in Chatswood.

Yarra Point apartments had prices ranging from $513,000 to $2.4 million, with an average of price of $948,000.

“This product diversity caters both to owner occupiers and investors,” Collishaw suggests.

“Yarra Point was also the first Victorian project to be designed by Mirvac design department in Sydney demonstrating a new level of efficiency within our integrated model, following centralisation of our design business,” shareholders were advised.

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