In five years Nick and his business partner Ben Hindmarsh have created 21 land lease communities (five with private investors) with over 3,300 home sites under operation and development.
“I am loving it,” said Nick. “This is our third attempt at getting here (to establish a land lease business).”
“Ben and I tried in 2000 but could not get scale and then in 2006 at Mirvac, when I was Chairman and Managing Director, I started a pilot project at Bargara, in Queensland’s Bundaberg region, but then the Global Financial Crisis hit and I had to devote my time to Mirvac.”
He said this time the market was ready for Lincoln Place and the land lease model still excites him.
“We are just shy of selling 40 homes in September and that is what we have been doing,” Nick said
“The customers are late sixties, early seventies, and they love the straightforward contract. There is no small print and they love the fact there is no leaving fee.
“We have a mother, 82, and her 61-year-old daughter living side-by-side at Campbell Lifestyle Estate in Cessnock.”
He said demand remained very strong but the buyers were more wary.
“It was an inspection and a deposit was lodged but now there are five, six, seven even eight inspections and the buyer comes back with the children, grandchildren, mates, even neighbours to have their decision vindicated.”
Nick said Lincoln Place had just bought Baranduda Lifestyle Estate, a land lease community in the growth region of Albury-Wodonga on the NSW and Victorian border.
Baranduda Lifestyle Estate is an activated development site comprising 96 approved home sites with potential for an 30 additional sites subject to Council approval.
Baranduda Lifestyle Estate is launching on 25 November, with another new estate Huntly Lifestyle Estate, a suburb in northern Bendigo, 169km north of Melbourne, on 28 October.
The SOURCE: The full interview will be in the next issue of SATURDAY.
