Creating luxury apartments in luxury suburbs: Five minutes with Orchard Piper's Luke McKie

Since being founded over a decade ago, arguably no one has put more of a stamp on the luxury end of the Melbourne apartment market than Orchard Piper.

Three of their most architecturally-focused projects over the years have been in Toorak, which is not only one of Melbourne's, but one of Australia's most affluent suburbs.

More billionaires call Toorak home than Sydney's harbourfront Point Piper, which says two things: Land that can make financial sense for a project is incredibly hard to come by, and what you have to put together has to be right, because the buyer is someone who sits in Australia's top one per cent, and they won't settle for anything less.

Orchard Piper's latest play is in Toorak, and it's quite possibly their most strategic development yet. 

For the last few years they've been putting together a site in Toorak Village where they've recently released just nine luxury apartments above office and retail. They've already sold five out of the nine apartments without any fanfare, with prices starting from $4,995,000. The 400 sqm penthouse sold off market for $12.5 million.

They had the Singapore-based Kerry Hills Architects design the building, their first project in Australia.

I recently caught up with Luke McKie, who said that while Toorak has always attracted people looking for larger properties, the high street has lagged behind.

But McKie says the village is now starting to catch up.

"It's not too dissimilar to Double Bay in Sydney five years or so ago, where the whole village has undergone a repositioning," Mckie says.

"That's now well underway in Toorak and will bring the high street to the same level of what the suburb deserves."

Orchard Piper were clever in their planning phase. They knew the market in Toorak was for large apartments. Ones or twos won't have sufficed. So they created an incredibly exclusive development of just nine three-bed apartments, activating the streetscape below with hospitality spaces and office stock which will contribute to the transformation of Toorak Village.

McKie says every buyer has been from the Toorak postcode, and exclusively downsizers.

"Anyone that's local knows how rare this opportunity is," McKie adds. 

"It's a consolidation of land in Toorak Village which hasn't happened before, and will be difficult to ever replicate. Most of the buyers already knew the site, and knew we were going to do the project, it was then just a case of timing. 

"We knew the play was to keep the local market up to date with what's happening, rather than looking to get in front of as many eyes as possible through traditional marketed methods. It's been a hyper localized campaign, serving individuals rather than the masses."

OP have a full book heading into 2024 with Toorak Village and a luxury apartment and hotel development on St Kilda Rd, the first time Orchard Piper has ventured into that type of product.

The project will include a contemporary 5-star hotel, along with Orchard Piper residences, a 500 sqm day spa, mezzanine restaurant and bar, street level café, and health and wellness amenities with conferencing and event facilities.

They're teaming up with the Carter family, who have a long development history having developed the luxury boutique hotels Tingirana and Seahaven in Noosa, as well as the landmark residential project, Albert Tower in Melbourne.

"It's a perfect partnership because we bring the residential knowledge to the project, and the Carter family has the land and development expertise, and history in hospitality. Together it will make for a landmark project."

McKie says they very much see value in amenity and service to high end apartments, and hotels are a good way to do that.

"We certainly see there’s a market that’s demanding a higher level of service, not just an apartment in a good spot. We're adapting our model to suit that."