Gaw, GreenFort Explore Sale of Retirement Living Platform Reside Communities

Hong Kong’s Gaw Capital Partners and Brisbane-based GreenFort Capital are considering the potential sale of their Reside Communities platform, an owner-operator of five retirement villages in Australia’s Queensland.

Gaw joined forces with GreenFort in 2018 on Reside, which has grown to more than 1,000 homes with a gross value of A$1 billion ($710 million). Morgan Stanley has been mandated to explore interest in the platform, with expectation of a process commencing as early as this year, the companies said Wednesday in a release.

The portfolio features premium living communities across Queensland’s southeastern corner in Carindale, Samford, Robertson, Maleny and Gold Coast’s Hope Island, tailored to active retirees seeking community, convenience and a range of facilities. Reside is being pitched as a scalable platform for new entrants to the Australian market or a bolt-on for existing larger platforms.

“Retirement living in Australia is underpinned by demand from a growing, wealthy customer base that will continue to outpace supply, leading to continued and consistent price growth,” Gaw and GreenFort said.

Sector Draws Interest

The companies noted rising interest in Australia’s retirement living sector from global capital in the last 12 months, as shown by Brookfield’s A$3.85 billion sale of Aveo to the Living Company (formerly Scape) and Invesco’s A$845 million acquisition of RetireAustralia.

The Aveo transaction saw Brookfield sell 65 retirement villages across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania in the country’s biggest direct real estate deal ever, edging Blackstone’s A$3.8 billion sale of the Milestone Logistics portfolio to ESR and GIC in 2021.

Canada’s Brookfield had taken then ASX-listed Aveo private in 2019 in a deal that valued the company at A$1.3 billion, before investing a further A$500 million in improvements.

Invesco purchased RetireAustralia from a 50:50 joint venture of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund and Wellington-based fund manager Infratil, giving the US investment manager control of 29 senior living villages with over 4,300 independent living units and serviced and care apartments. RetireAustralia’s development pipeline has the potential to deliver a further 800 units across seven projects nationwide.

In addition, the Living Company was said to be in due diligence late last year on the acquisition of Lendlease’s 25 percent stake in retirement community operator Keyton, but The Australian reported this week that the presumptive buyer had walked away from the deal for the 75-village platform.

Land Lease Venture

As they test the market for Reside, Gaw and GreenFort continue to expand their land lease venture launched in 2024. Last year the partners acquired two land lease projects with 750 lots in Queensland, boosting the platform’s project pipeline to more than 1,000 homes with an estimated gross value of A$750 million.

Land lease communities are frequently positioned as retiree housing in Australia, with residents owning the home but leasing the land beneath it from the community operator, akin to a trailer park.

Gaw’s commitment is helping to expand the Liven Communities business — founded in 2023 by GreenFort execs Adam Vaggelas, Nick Singleton and Daniel Cheilyk — to an initial platform target of 1,200 land lease homes across the east coast of Australia.