Page 2 - Building a brand

ISSUE 29 — 14 M AY 2022

cheque, they were more comfortable While the group has acquired a community
bankrolling retirement villages than named The Anchorage at Hervey Bay
entering a sector which was unknown which is at the luxury end – a number of its
institutionally in Australia at the time.” homes have sold over the million-dollar
mark – Rob says their focus is now on
Instead, Rob convinced his wife to targeting the middle of the market.
remortgage the family home to purchase a
160-home land lease community on the “We have the strongest capital base in the
NSW Central Coast. sector [courtesy of GIC] so we are trying to
build a brand for longevity,” said Rob.
Footholds on the West and East Coasts
Serenitas is using this base to its
Its success gave him the incentive to advantage with around 500 development
return to the investors and gain the sites underway on the West Coast and
capital to build Tasman Lifestyle over 2,000 planned for the East Coast
Continuum, which became the third including Victoria where a number of
largest player in the sector before its land lease operators are now entering
merger with Gateway Lifestyle in 2015. the market.

After leaving Gateway, Rob teamed up with “If you look at the number of manufactured
GIC to found Serenitas in late 2017. or lifestyle, community homes versus
population, Victoria is under-serviced
Fast-forward five years and the group has and it is geographically compact compared
22 land lease communities and to other states, which in some ways makes
development sites across the country – 10 it easier to draw population from the larger
on the West Coast (eight which were centres.”
acquired through its 2018 acquisition of
National Lifestyle Villages’ communities)
and 12 on the East Coast where they are
now concentrated on growing their various
brands. A further three greenfield sites are
subject to option arrangements.

Serenitas has maintained the NLV brand
on the West Coast, but has introduced a
new affordable luxury brand Thyme
Lifestyle Resorts on the East Coast as a
balance between the higher and lower
end of the land lease market.

“We are trying to provide good
value, but very high-quality

facilities and homes to our
residents so it is designed to be
a market disruptor,” said Rob.

Serenitas targeting the mid-range land
Rob Nichols
lease market with 2,500 home sites

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