From Singapore to Sydney: Centurion Digs into Australian Living Sectors

Singapore-based development giant Centurion Corporation is nearing completion of its 732-bed Macquarie Park student accommodation project and is turning its gaze to other markets and sectors in Australia. Centurion head of planning and development Anthony Bolger is a Melbourne native but has been based in Singapore for the past 10 years. He says that despite market challenges, Australia is becoming increasingly a focus for the developer. “For me, the harder things that we do in real estate that drive the best returns and are the most satisfying,” Bolger says. “As we all know, planning is inherently risky and complicated in the Australian market. ▲ Centurion head of planning and development Anthony Bolger. “But Centurion as a group has really put the time and the effort into understanding local frameworks and how to work with councils and governments, with a long-term view to delivering the types of products that we’re delivering globally.” This long-term approach is a key to Centurion’s approach, he says. “[That] gives us a unique ability to enter a market without focusing on the cyclical nuances of what’s challenging.” Despite having serious international development clout and expertise, expanding in a market should be done with sensitivity, Bolger says. “I don’t think that you can go into a market that’s not your own and try to do things your own way. “That’s where you can come unstuck as a developer when you try and push your own way through a local market.” Singapore v Australia While fundamentally, development is no different in Singapore than it is in Australia, its execution is nuanced, Bolger says. “Australia, with multiple-tiered governments, provides some challenges. “Singapore is maybe a little simpler in that sense, in terms of how to navigate planning processes and regulations.” The other major difference, says Bolger, is labour. “The labour force here in Singapore is vastly different from the labour force in Australia, and that provides different opportunities and challenges. ▲ Centurion ’ s Macquarie Park project ( also pictured top ) introduces its EPIISOD student living brand. “Singapore’s labour force is highly driven by, and supplied by, migrant workers.” In fact, worker accommodation is a major part of Centurion’s overseas markets, particularly Singapore and Malaysia, and accounts for 70 per cent of annual revenues, according to Bolger. So while PBSA is the sector it has focused on in Australia, Centurion is eyeing up worker accommodation and other living sector typologies in Australia too. “PBSA is certainly a key pillar of our expansion globally, but naturally as a developer and an operator of various types of accommodation, our appetite to explore the living sector more broadly is certainly there. ▲ EPIISOD Macquarie Park will be ready for Semester 1 of 2026, Centurion says. “Things like build-to-rent and co-living are of interest to us, and our capability to operate institutional grade living sector products is sound. “So it’s a natural progression for us to expand our reach into other living asset classes.” Worker accommodation is becoming a growth area for Centurion, although planned projects are in early phases. “That’s becoming a big focus for us in Australia. So you’ll see some growth in that area from us in the Australian market to address the key worker shortage in terms of accommodation. “We have a couple of projects in the pipeline but not the typical worker accommodation that we’ve been known for,” Bolger says, given the focus on regional and key workers in Australia. Student accommodation For now, PBSA is Centurion’s biggest sector in Australia, and it also builds in international education hubs in the UK and the US, as well as dabbling in Hong Kong and Korean student markets. And Centurion currently manages 4501 student beds across 17 PBSA assets globally. Its debut in the Australian market in 2014 was the acquisition of 5-17 Flemington Road in Melbourne followed by Dwell East End, Adelaide. “Back then, the idea was that student accommodation was recession-proof, and had highly stable demand in key locations where international students are attracted to the high level of universities,” Bolger says. “PBSA across multiple cycles has been very resilient and ... it shows in the demand that investors have for the asset class still today.” ▲ Centurion ’ s Dwell Village in Melbourne. But it has ramped up its development pipeline of late, planning to deliver its Lachlan Avenue site under its EPIISOD brand by 2026, and 2500 beds in Melbourne on a site next to RMIT and another on the former home of the Victorian Police Association club, as well as new projects in Perth. “For some operators, scale is an issue. But for us, the fundamentals of Perth are really strong,” Bolger says. “For quite a long time ... maybe the disjointed nature in which the universities were marketing themselves into international markets was a problem. “[But] universities have come together to really market Perth as a destination for international students [and that has] made a huge difference.” Australia has also benefitted from Centurion’s caution in other markets. “We’re at about 3000 beds in the UK, and at one point, we were about the same size in the US, but we are slowly selling some of our US assets which were wrapped up in a closed-end fund and are looking more towards the UK and Australia, as well as New Zealand.” Changing trends Being a global operator also means being able to leverage knowledge about international trends. “Across South-East Asian and Asian markets, there are different nuances from a cultural perspective in how you would deliver student accommodation to the market,” Bolger says. “But across Australia, the US, and the UK, you’re able to track common demand trends. “Things like tech-enabled solutions, focusing on students’ health and wellbeing. ▲ EPIISOD Macquarie Park project includes a rooftop infinity pool. “There’s a whole new wave of fitness and wellbeing, and how you design a building is very different in terms of the types of amenity that you include.” Centurion’s EPIISOD brand is a response to this, he says, especially given that Australian developers and operators have set the bar so high. “The standard of accommodation in Australia is exceptional … the industry as a whole is doing a great job in delivering a myriad of different types of opportunities and experiences for students,” Bolger says. While there are challenges in the sector from construction costs through to disadvantageous tenancy acts, as Scape chief executive Anouk Darling has highlighted , the outlook is bright, says Bolger. “As an industry, we’re sitting at the table with open arms and open minds ready to tackle those solutions.” The Urban Developer ’s Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) Summit will be held in Melbourne on August 14. Find out more .

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