Click photo to enlarge
Part of an urban Summerset retirement complex, still being
completed in Manakau, which incorporates a multilevel wing.
Summerset retirement homes' Dunedin development, its
first in the South Island, could be a $40 million to $50
million investment with villas, multilevel apartments and
hospital-care facilities for up to 250 people, in Kaikorai.
The Australian-owned New Zealand-operated company purchased a
1.9ha block of land in Shetland St, Dunedin, for $1.4 million
and last week received Overseas Investment Office clearance.
Summerset's general manager of marketing and sales, Tristan
Saunders, contacted yesterday, said Dunedin was short-listed
for development of a total five land-banked properties at
present.
Details of the project, resource consent applications and
construction tendering were most likely to go ahead during
2011.
"The Dunedin concept has still not been finalised, but [being
urban] will have a mix of villas and multilevel apartments,"
he said yesterday.
Mr Saunders said Summerset, which has 12 North Island
developments housing about 1450 people, had a "typical"
development which was usually on about 6ha of land in a rural
setting, comprising 90 to 100 villas and hospital-care
facilities for 150 to 250 people and costing $40 million to
$50 million.
He said demographic changes predicted a 150% increase of
people aged over 65 between 2010 and 2050.
Summerset was New Zealand's third-largest retirement operator
and maintaining quality lifestyle villages was key to market
leadership.
Summerset, founded in 1994, is owned by AMP Capital Investors
and Quadrant Private Equity Group.
Asked if the company was considering listing on the stock
market, Mr Saunders said there were "no immediate plans" to
do so, but listing was one of several options which could be
considered if more capital was sought in the future.
Summerset had a strategy to move into the South Island in
coming years, but Mr Saunders was unable to disclose if it
had purchased any more land, other than the Dunedin section.
Summerset's overall target was to have 20 villages completed,
or under development, by 2012, he said.
