"Swift sales for Coast apartments nothing like we've seen before": Five Minutes with Sammut Group's Allen and Julian Sammut
The Sammut Group has been operating in the luxury residential apartment space in Sydney's Sutherland Shire region for the best part of three decades.
They made a name for themselves on the Gold Coast in 2021 with their near sell-out of their first project in Queensland, Coast, on the sought-after Garfield Terrace in Surfers Paradise.
Within weeks of lodging its development application earlier this year, it sold more than half of the 43 beachfront apartments.
"The kind of swift sale is unlike anything I have experienced in my 35 years in the industry," Sammut Group CEO and co-founder Allen Sammut said.
There were sight unseen, full-floor apartment purchasers from Sydney and Melbourne in recent weeks. The project is set for completion in late 2023.
Urban had a chat with Allen and his son Julian Sammut about how the market went in 2021, and what's next for 2022 and 2023.
JC: How have you viewed the performance of the off the plan market in 2021, and what are the strongest positive and negative factors that will influence outcomes in 2022 and 2023?
The property industry as a whole has been nothing like what Australia has experienced before, especially the eastern seaboard. Given that we are in the development business, our market lies within the ‘off the plan sales’ and over the past 12 months it has been incredibly strong. We are seeing a common trend of downsizers and families/couples migrating for the south or interstate and moving their life or looking for investment and holiday opportunities closer to the coastline. Although all the news highlights talk about the property boom, we believe that it is more so within the product you are producing that attracts the certain cliental within this current market.
We believe that come 2022-2023 there will be an even stronger push for people wanting to live on the eastern seaboard, with the boarders opening up and migration happening again, and the local community wanting to shift their way of living. This can act as a positive for the property industry with increasing demand but also as a negative, with the demand increase’s this can cause the wrong type of product to be produced and further impact the quality, prices and outcome of the current market trends.
JC: What trend (short term or long term) has prompted your greatest enthusiasm for the apartment market, and what is the issue of most concern to you and or your clients?
The greatest trend is from the large homeowners wanting to move closer to the water but not give up their space and luxuries that they already have within their home. We believe we have really tapped into this market by providing our ‘Sammut’ product, targeted an expediential luxury offering for all purchases that still creates a spacious home within a residential project. We have done this by producing apartments with top quality finishes ranging from 100m2 up to 600m2 and 1100m2.
Allowing purchases to not compromise on any luxuries they had within their home, to live closer to the eastern seaboard, but still live as though they are on a holiday everyday within our offering.
A concern we have seen within our clients is the trust they have with so many projects currently under development and difficulty with buying off the plan. We believe that well established brands should continue to create collateral and establish a trustworthy relationship with their clients so this doesn’t have an affect on the overall market, with a lot of stock available currently.
JC: Has urbanisation stalled amid the rush to the regions and what will it look like over the decade ahead?
We believe that urbanisation hasn’t stalled and there is still a rush, although we are seeing with the growing population in these areas, that the current community within are starting to make the same changes as the population moving in.
JC: How important do you view the push for sustainability practices in the apartment market, and what initiative has seized your interest or focus?
We believe that this is an incredibly important part of the apartment industry with so many projects being development at a nation level it is imperative that all development companies are looking into ways that they can be more sustainable while still producing their product.
The Nat Zero Carbon initiative has been one that has caught our company’s eye with multiple industry leaders already committing to this cause. With the help of our consultants and builders, we are further looking into ways that our developments can reduce their carbon footprint. Through the construction process and materials generated during the project builds, end of use within the building, looking into the buildings energy consumption and how this can best be generated i.e more solar.