Resimax offers affordable housing investment in Melbourne

AUSTRALIA-BASED property developer Resimax Group is offering potential buyers the opportunity to invest in affordable housing and lifestyle apartments in Melbourne.

Resimax chief executive officer and former Olympic gold medalist Steve Hooker ( pic) says Melbourne has good population growth and economic fundamentals that are ideal for investors.

“We have an existing database of buyers from Malaysia that have bought into our projects. A number of our sales are from our existing customers, who have been purchasing a second or third property in Australia,” he tells StarBizWeek during a visit to Malaysia recently.

Hooker was down to promote the company’s projects in Melbourne, namely its Lumar and Orabel Apartments in Seaford. Resimax has a regional office in Malaysia.

The developer offers a complete range of property-related services from land acquisition to architecture and design, construction, project marketing sales settlements and rental management.

“We have two apartment projects in the south-east. We’re selling two projects in the north and have another four in the pipeline,” says Hooker.

He says the company’s products range from under A$400,000 (RM1.32mil) up to A$900,000 (RM3mil).

“Our product strategy is about buying where the locals buy, and we don’t do central business district apartments.”

Hooker emphasises that an important part of investing for the investor is his or her “exit strategy”.

“We believe in offering our products to overseas customers so that they’re guaranteed good returns, whether it’s for the short term or long term or if they’re the owners of that property.

“We also strive to ensure that they will have a solid marketplace to sell that property when their time as an investor is done.”

He points out that for the average investor, their investments should be for the long-term.

“But life changes take place. People’s circumstances change. Sometimes, they’re going to need to sell quite quickly and you want to be in a market where there are local buyers that can facilitate that quick sell.

“So our strategy is ‘buy where locals buy’ and we also look at affordability.”

According to Hooker, the Melbourne property market has been showing steady growth over the past six years.

“It will slow down at some point but we don’t see a dramatic correction. Historically, the property market in Australia accelerates, then flattens; accelerates, then flattens.

“But when it flattens, what’s going to continue to sell? We look at demographics. There are so many young buyers coming into the market, those who are entering

the first-time buyer’s segment. So we want to have products that’s going to suit them and their budget.”

The general consensus regarding the Melbourne market is that there will be growth in the next 12 months of up to 5%, says Hooker.

“There’s talk of a property bubble but I don’t subscribe to that. If there was a market where there is a bubble that would pop, we would have seen that already in Perth.

“The market in Perth has gone through a lot of changes, such as a drop in employment, and we’ve only seen a minor drop in property prices there.”

Apart from providing affordable housing for the younger demographic, Resimax also utilises urban re-development to build contemporary apartments for retirees looking to downsize, while at the same time, looking to maintain a quality lifestyle.

“We also cater to older, wealthy individuals who don’t want to maintain a large property and want to move to smaller units that are more manageable.

“These are individuals who are looking for units that are closer to the city and also seeking a lifestyle change.”

Pole vault gold

Hooker, a pole vault gold medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, draws heavily on his success at the games. According to the company’s profile page, Hooker was the captain of the Australian Olympic athletics team from 2008 to 2012, where discipline, commitment and hard work were key for achieving outstanding results. “I try to implement the same high performance ideas I had in my sporting career into the business I’m involved in,” he says. In the property development industry, Hooker has held a number of senior development management roles.

“My background is in property. From the age of 20 to around 25, I was working with a developer. At the time, I was training 25 hours a week and working 30 hours a week and doing my studies as well.

“It was a huge part of my background but sports is not forever. I feel that you always need something to go back to, and I’m happily back in property.”