Australia’s most ambitious build-to-rent developer, MODEL, is on the lookout to fund a growing pipeline of cross-laminated timber apartment towers in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne over the next 12 months. That is according to Rory Hunter, MODEL’s CEO, who headlined Australia’s Timber Construct conference in Melbourne.
Addressing 200 architects, engineers, developers and timber professionals at the conference, Hunter said MODEL, now looking to raise $600 million from investors, is well-positioned to succeed where traditional or legacy developers have not: “We’re designing for a very different future. Buildings must be more resilient, and timber is a key part of that,” Hunter said from the sidelines. “As the energy transition and broader decarbonisation accelerate, assets that haven’t considered operational and embodied carbon from the start risk becoming stranded. Timber aligns with our values and mission, and it’s what the market will demand.”
Responding to questions from Georgie Coutsodimitropoulos, NeXTimber by Timberlink’s Marketing and Brand Manager, Hunter said that combining timber and Passivhaus standards can materially lift housing quality across Australia. “Shockingly, the majority of Australian homes fall outside the World Health Organisation’s recommended temperature and humidity ranges, and the situation is worse in the rental sector,” he said. “Around 80% of rental homes are either too cold and damp in winter or too hot in summer, creating real health risks for tenants.”
Armed with JLL research – commissioned by MODEL – Hunter argues that higher sustainability standards also deliver commercial upside. MODEL, he said, is targeting 6‑Star Green Star, 9‑Star NatHERS and Passivhaus certification for its developments — a first for large-scale apartment complexes in Australia — which he said can command rental premiums of 5–10%, sustain occupancy near 98% and cut energy bills by thousands of dollars a year. “MODEL’s sustainable premium “is projected to add roughly 400 basis points to base‑case IRR over seven years, materially outperforming traditional build‑to‑rent benchmarks,” he said.
At the start of MODEL’s pipeline is the Johnston project in Abbotsford, Melbourne, a short stroll from Timber Construct’s 2025 venue. Designed by Fraser & Partners, the development is billed as Melbourne’s tallest mass‑timber residential tower and Australia’s first large‑scale Passivhaus apartment complex. Hunter says Johnston will halve embodied carbon compared with a conventional build, run on 100% renewable energy and deliver average utility savings of about $1,000 per tenant each year.
A former Harvard graduate who helped establish Cambodia’s first marine national park through his work with SoHo Partners and the Song Saa Foundation, Hunter says sustainability lowers financing costs and broadens investor interest. “By aligning our projects with global ESG frameworks — including the UN Sustainable Development Goals, TCFD and EU Taxonomy — MODEL qualifies for Article 9 funds and sustainability‑linked finance, which can shave basis points off the cost of debt,” he said.
Hunter’s keynote formed part of a joint session that also featured Chethiya Ratnakara, the Managing Director of Singapore-based Versobuild, who travelled to Melbourne (via Singapore and Paris) to showcase how big tech companies are now looking to use cross-laminated timber in combination with steel and concrete to build the next generation of data centres in Southeast Asia, whilst Dr Louise Wallis chaired a session, Innovation in Wood: High-Performance Timber Products for Modern Construction, which launched research that showed that stone wall – rock wall – could replace plasterboard in insultation in cross-laminated timber flooring and timber framed walls.
Please note: Wood Central will have exclusive coverage from the conference in the coming days.
