How a diversified portfolio helped Goldfields Group expand into the apartment market: Five minutes with Goldfields Group CEO Lachlan Thompson
Goldfields Group has been at the forefront of residential development for a number of years. It was that experience that helped them make the move first into the office sector, and then into the multi-residential high-rise apartment space in Sydney recently, as well as expanding their house and land developments to Western Australia.
With everything going on, Urban.com.au CEO Mike Bird caught up with Goldfields Group CEO Lachlan Thompson, in the Beverley Rooftop bar which sits atop Goldfields House, their commercial tower at 627 Chapel Street in South Yarra, to talk about their approach to development.
Goldfields House was Goldfields Group entry into the office market, presenting both commercial and hospitality elements. In 2017, amid expectations of a significant run on commercial office rents, the team strategically decided to explore the uncharted territory.
"The opportunity was probably a little bit bigger than we were looking for in 2017," Thompson says.
"We thought there was going to be a significant run on commercial office rents."
They had initially been looking for something smaller, missing out on a few opportunities in Cremorne, before securing the prime site on South Yarra's Chapel Street.
It completed around the time where the leasing market was the worst in three or four decades, but the fact they delivered a product that was the best in class, meant they were incredibly successful in leasing the building.
The success at Goldfields House led Goldfields Group into the high-rise apartment space, with the learnings of developing a high-rise office tower with the amenity to match.
"Amenity is everything these days, and it's a bit of a one-upmanship at the moment as to who can provide the most," Thompson said on residential developments.
"What there is that's coming out of the market at the moment is that everyone is becoming very house proud of where they live, and becoming super loyal to the building that they've bought in."
Goldfields Group first made the move into Sydney high-rise market with The Bryson of Chatswood, a 90-metre tower in the heart of Chatswood. That came after a low-rise townhouse and apartment project in Pymble.
The Bryson, near Beauchamp Park will comprise 70 one, two and three-bedroom apartments across its 26 levels, including a collection of skyhomes and penthouses.
Thompson says he's seen a shift in buyer preferences during the marketing of The Bryson.
"Two-bed one baths are nearly extinct, we saw that coming," Thompson says. What they didn't see coming was the amount of amalgamation requests.
"Probably about 25 per cent of enquiries at the moment are for amalgamations, turning twos into threes."
Goldfields will be looking at recreating a smaller version of Goldfields House in Brisbane in the not too distant future.
All up Goldfields have delivered around 6,000 residential dwellings across house and land lots, apartments and townhouses.