Eureka Group buys six NSW retirement properties from Ingenia for A$123.8m

Australian senior housing provider Eureka Group has agreed to acquire six retirement properties in New South Wales from Ingenia Communities Group for A$123.8 million. The deal adds 953 established sites and will be partly funded by an A$80.2 million entitlement offer and a new A$80 million debt faci

Australian senior housing provider Eureka Group has agreed to acquire a set of six retirement properties in New South Wales from Ingenia Communities Group for A$123.8 million ($88.7 million), increasing the number of housing plots in its portfolio by 21 per cent.

Eureka will partially fund the acquisition through a 1-for-3.29 entitlement offer for existing shareholders at A$0.615 per share that will raise A$80.2 million. About A$53.6 million will come from a new A$80.0 million debt facility provided by Westpac and National Australia Bank, the Brisbane-based company said in a filing to the ASX on Thursday.

“The acquisition is transformational for Eureka, adding 953 established sites across Greater Sydney and other key NSW locations, materially increasing scale and reinforcing Eureka’s status as the only ASX listed pure-play residential rental specialist,” said Simon Owen, Eureka’s managing director and chief executive.

Australia’s land lease sector is attracting more institutional and private investment as an ageing population, declining home ownership rate and worsening affordability reshape national demand, according to real estate services firm Colliers, which estimates that 75 per cent of new housing demand over the next two decades will come from the cohort of Australians over the age of 50 looking to downsize before retirement.

Through the transaction Eureka is acquiring four properties which combine land lease homes and tourist cabins, as well as two dedicated land lease communities, with the portfolio spread across Greater Sydney, the Central Coast, Hunter Valley and Shoalhaven. The assets provide an entry yield of 8.1 per cent and a forecast five year internal rate of return of 15 per cent. The transaction will boost Eureka’s housing plots under management by 21 per cent to 5,492 and assets under management by 23 per cent to A$666 million. The deal also increases Eureka’s New South Wales exposure from 8 per cent to 24 per cent of its total plots.

Eureka said the transaction will increase the company’s fiscal 2027 underlying earnings per share to at least 4.2 Australian cents, a 22 per cent increase compared with fiscal 2026 and above the company’s previous guidance of 3.9 Australian cents per share. The company requested a halt in trading of its shares on the ASX before the announcement. The shares will resume trading on 7 September.

ASX-listed Ingenia said in a separate statement on Thursday that by selling the assets to Eureka it will release A$124 million of capital, which will be used to repay debt. The impact of the transaction has already been incorporated into the group’s fiscal 2027 guidance. The transaction with Eureka comes a week after Ingenia announced it will spend A$992.3 million to acquire Perth-based developer Peet.