Fitzroy

An 11-storey build-to-rent building of 243 apartments in Fitzroy, $219m in value, now in pre-construction. Chris helped structure and negotiate the deal and secured KIO as the developer.

The work here was in the set-up rather than the delivery: testing the site as a build-to-rent scheme, helping structure and negotiate the transaction, and bringing KIO to the table as the developer who would take it forward.

An earlier proposal for the site was 57 apartments for sale. Tested as build-to-rent, it carries 243 apartments held by one owner and let long term: 115 studios, 84 one-bedroom, 28 two-bedroom and 16 three-bedroom apartments, with a 251 m² shop on the corner, where furniture showrooms and a bottle shop stood before.

Build-to-rent changes what a site is worth and who will pay for it. The return comes from rent collected over decades rather than sales on completion, so the scheme, the apartment mix and the shared spaces have to suit an institutional owner, and the deal has to hand that owner a permit and a program it can underwrite. What Chris brought was both halves: a scheme tested as build-to-rent, and a buyer whose business is holding one.

The shared spaces follow from that: a gym and yoga room, a lounge and bar, private dining, spaces to work from home, and a 542 m² terrace with a barbecue area and a dog run. There are 246 bicycle spaces and 95 car spaces. On Napier Street the Edwardian building at number 329 keeps its facade, with the new building behind.

The site takes in 159–167 Johnston Street, 146–152 Argyle Street and 329 Napier Street. The Department of Transport and Planning issued the permit in May 2026, and in August 2026 KIO, the rental housing business established with Warburg Pincus, announced its acquisition of the site as part of a $2.5 billion build-to-rent target. It is listed here for what it was: the deal that made the development possible.