AVARI Capital speaks with Investor Daily about why land lease communities are attracting growing investor attention, combining resilient recurring income with the potential for above-CPI rental growth and long-term value creation.

Land lease offers an unusual combination: recurring income supported by underlying housing demand, alongside multiple levers to grow income and asset value over time.

The article explores why AVARI believes the sector has the potential to sit between traditional income-focused property and higher-growth real estate strategies, and how active management can further enhance returns.

Read the full article on Investor Daily.

https://www.investordaily.com.au/resilient-income-with-above-cpi-growth-why-avari-backs-land-lease/

Chief Investment Officer Ben Coughlin and Kelly + Partners’ Trent Doughty discuss the AVARI approach to investment in today’s landscape.

At AVARI, strong lending and investment decisions start with understanding the opportunity, and being confident in the assumptions that underpin it.

In this podcast, AVARI Capital explores the philosophy behind its approach to private credit, including the importance of transparent and trusted lending, rigorous due diligence and developing an AVARI valuation we can stand behind.

The conversation looks at how feasibility analysis and stress testing help build that confidence. Rather than assessing individual variables in isolation, AVARI considers how changing market conditions can interact and whether an investment retains acceptable headroom across a range of scenarios.

Watch the full interview here https://youtu.be/7uauI3vYOlE

August 13, 2026

For decades, Australian property investment has largely centred around residential housing, commercial property and, more recently, private credit.

But Australia’s housing needs are changing, and it’s creating new opportunities that haven’t really been on investor’s radars before.

Most property investment has focused on residential housing, commercial property or industrial assets. But when you step back and look at what’s happening across the country, including housing shortages, population growth, an ageing population and affordability pressures, it’s clear that the way Australians live is changing too.

That’s why Land Lease Communities are becoming an area that warrants far more attention for savvy investors.

They’re not a new concept, but they are an asset class that’s only just beginning to gain momentum in Australia.

What exactly is a Land Lease Community?

The concept is actually quite simple.

Residents own their home, but they lease the land it sits on.

By removing the cost of buying the land, home ownership becomes much more accessible. For many people, it provides an opportunity to free up equity while still enjoying the security and lifestyle of owning their own home.

For investors, it’s a different way of thinking about residential property.

Instead of owning individual homes, you’re investing in the land itself and the ongoing income generated through long-term site leases. That not only helps address a genuine housing need but creates a recurring income stream backed by a real asset.

Why is the opportunity growing?

The biggest reason is that the fundamentals aren’t going away anytime soon.

Australia needs more housing, yet it’s becoming harder and more expensive to build it. Rental vacancy rates remain incredibly tight, construction costs have increased significantly and many Australians are finding traditional home ownership increasingly out of reach.

At the same time, we’re seeing more people looking for affordable, lower-maintenance living options without compromising on quality or location and a focus on lifestyle.

By purchasing only the home rather than both the home and land, residents can significantly reduce their upfront housing costs while freeing capital for retirement or lifestyle.

Many communities also provide:

• professionally managed environments
• lower maintenance living
• community facilities
• security benefits
• access to well-located coastal and regional communities.

As Australia’s population ages, demand for this style of living is expected to continue growing.

When you put those trends together, Land Lease Communities make a lot of sense now and for the future.

Why investors are starting to notice

One of the biggest attractions to this sector is that it isn’t driven by short-term market sentiment.

Demand comes from people needing somewhere affordable to live.

That creates a very different dynamic to many traditional property investments.

Residents own their homes, while the landowner receives ongoing site rental income. Because homeowners are responsible for their own homes, operating costs can also be lower than many traditional residential investments over the long term.

It’s a model that’s already well established internationally but Australia is still relatively early in that journey, making the opportunity even greater.

Land lease communities offer a different investment profile from traditional residential property.

Instead of relying primarily on capital appreciation from individual homes, investors own the underlying land and receive recurring site rental income.

That creates several attractive characteristics.

1. Recurring income: Residents pay ongoing site fees, providing predictable, long-term income supported by housing demand.

2. Ownership of the underlying land: Unlike residential landlords, the investment is focused on the land itself rather than owning and maintaining individual homes.

3. Reduced maintenance obligation: Because residents own their homes, responsibility for much of the ongoing maintenance sits with the homeowner rather than the landowner, helping reduce operating costs over time. This operational model is one of the reasons the strategy anticipates improved efficiency as communities mature.

4. Strong demographic tailwinds: Demand isn’t driven purely by the property cycle. It’s supported by ageing demographics, affordability challenges and sustained population growth.

5. Portfolio diversification: Land lease communities provide exposure to an emerging segment of real estate that behaves differently to traditional residential investment.

Beyond income: creating value through active management

One of the reasons AVARI believes this sector presents a compelling opportunity is that many existing caravan parks and mixed-use accommodation assets can be repositioned into higher-quality land lease communities over time.

Rather than developing from scratch, AVARI’s strategy focuses initially on acquiring operating assets that already generate income, then progressively enhancing their value through redevelopment, operational improvements and staged conversion to permanent land lease communities. This allows assets to continue generating cash flow while value is created over time.

Bringing the Land Lease opportunity to our investors

The AVARI Alternative Accommodation Fund has already begun executing this strategy.

Importantly, these are not speculative greenfield developments.

What we’ve been looking for are existing assets that already generate income today but also have the potential to become something much more valuable over time.

Rather than starting with a blank piece of land, we can acquire established caravan parks in strong locations, continue generating income from day one, and then progressively reposition them into high-quality Land Lease Communities as demand grows and approvals are achieved.

That’s exactly the thinking behind our Cairns and Busselton acquisitions. They each provide immediate income while also giving us opportunities to improve operations and avenues to create additional value and build long-term recurring revenue from the land.

Looking ahead

Land Lease Communities are not a niche investment. I see them becoming an increasingly important part of Australia’s housing mix.

They’re helping solve a real affordability challenge, they’re supported by long-term demographic trends and they offer a different way for investors to access Australian real estate.

That’s what makes this opportunity compelling.

Not because it’s new, but because the fundamentals behind it are strong, and we’re still in the early stages of where this sector can go creating true opportunity for our investors.

AVARI Capital has surpassed $1.5 billion in group assets under management and more than $500 million 1st mortgage fund size, as the firm continues to expand its national private credit platform across key Australian markets.

The milestone reflects continued investor demand for disciplined, real estate-backed private credit strategies and marks a significant stage in AVARI’s growth as a nationally connected nonbank lender.

As part of this next phase, AVARI has continued to strengthen its origination capability with strategic appointments across Queensland and Western Australia, expanding the firm’s on-the-ground presence and deepening access to high-quality opportunities nationally.

Recent appointments include:

• Gary Louis JP FCA, managing AVARI’s origination efforts in both WA and SA, bringing more than 25 years’ experience across commercial real estate, private capital and strategic advisory, most recently leading NAB’s WA/SA Commercial Real Estate lending portfolio.
• Ash Kitchen, driving origination in QLD, with experience across property & corporate finance and banking, including roles with Bank of New Zealand and Macquarie Group to deliver strong lending and relationship expertise.
• Becki Gonsalves, leading our marketing and communications activity, bringing extensive experience in building brands and a passion for bringing clarity and impact to businesses. The expansion reflects AVARI’s continued investment in experienced people, local market relationships and disciplined origination capability as demand for flexible private credit solutions continues to grow.

For investors, the scale of the platform supports broader access to diversified, rigorously assessed opportunities. For borrowers, it enhances AVARI’s ability to deliver flexible capital solutions with speed, certainty and clarity in transactions where traditional lenders may not align.

Alan Liao, Founder, Partner and Chief Executive Officer, said the growth in assets under management reflects the continued strengthening of AVARI’s platform and national capability. “Surpassing $1.5 billion in group assets under management is an important milestone for the business, but it’s ultimately a reflection of the platform we’ve been building and the quality of the team behind it,” Mr Liao said.

“Private credit is a relationship-driven business. Expanding our presence across key markets
strengthens our access to opportunities and enhances our ability to structure and deploy capital
with expert conviction and strengthens how we support both investors and borrowers.”

Alongside this growth, AVARI has rolled out a new website and refreshed brand platform and
positioning:

Decisive Capital. Proven Performance.

Delivering structured, high-conviction investments and tailored private credit solutions.

The refreshed positioning reflects the scale, maturity and national growth of the platform, while reinforcing AVARI’s focus on disciplined performance and decisive execution.

“As we continue to grow, the focus remains the same- disciplined investment decisions, strong
borrower relationships and consistent outcomes for investors.”

In investing, there is often a tendency to associate higher returns with taking greater risks. The reality is usually far less exciting.

Some of the strongest long-term investment outcomes come from making disciplined decisions that, on the surface, appear almost uneventful.

That’s particularly true in first mortgage private credit.

When people hear the term “private credit”, they often assume it refers to a single investment style. In reality, private credit encompasses a broad range of lending strategies, each with different objectives, structures and risk profiles.

Our First Mortgage Fund was never designed to chase difficulty. It was designed to do one thing exceptionally well: preserve capital while delivering consistent income.

That philosophy changes the way every investment decision is made.

Unlike an equity investment, the upside in a first mortgage loan is already defined.

The interest rate is agreed from the outset. The return isn’t dependent on property prices doubling, a development exceeding expectations, or favourable market conditions.

The opportunity doesn’t become more valuable because everything goes perfectly.

Instead, the focus shifts to something much more important.

What happens if it doesn’t?

That question sits at the centre of every lending decision we make.

Before capital is deployed, we spend considerable time understanding every factor that could influence repayment. Borrower capability. Asset quality. Loan structure. Security position. Exit strategy. Market conditions. Alternative scenarios.

Rather than predicting the future, the key is to test whether the loan remains resilient if the future unfolds differently from expectations.

This means good underwriting is rarely about finding reasons to lend. It’s about finding reasons not to.

Every investment manager talks about identifying opportunities. Far fewer talk about the opportunities they deliberately avoid.

In many respects, those decisions define long-term performance just as much as the loans that ultimately enter the portfolio.

There is often pressure within markets to maintain deployment, particularly when investor demand remains strong. But disciplined lending requires patience. If an opportunity doesn’t provide sufficient downside protection, the answer has to be no.

That discipline isn’t always visible. It doesn’t create headlines. It rarely produces exciting stories. But over time, it becomes one of the greatest contributors to consistent investment outcomes.

Investors understandably spend time comparing returns across funds, after all, returns matter. But they only tell part of the story.

An equally important question is how those returns were achieved. Were they generated through conservative leverage? Was security appropriate? How thoroughly was downside risk assessed? How consistently are those standards applied across every transaction?

These are often the questions that determine investment performance over the long term.

The strongest private credit managers aren’t necessarily those pursuing the most aggressive opportunities.

They’re often those with the discipline to maintain the same investment standards regardless of market conditions.

At AVARI, we’ve always believed successful private credit begins well before capital is deployed.

It begins with disciplined underwriting, rigorous downside analysis and a willingness to decline opportunities that don’t meet our investment criteria.

In first mortgage lending, the upside is already known. Our responsibility is making sure investors continue to receive it.

Because in private credit, consistency rarely comes from taking bigger risks. More often, it comes from making better decisions.

AVARI Capital CIO Ben Coughlin recently sat down with Charles Stewart from Market Partners to walk through what we see the future of investment looking like and how we approach investments at AVARI.

Watch the full interview here https://youtu.be/wm_OCCUCIq0

June 26, 2026

Second acquisition expands exposure to emerging land lease and alternative accommodation sector.

AVARI Capital Partners has announced the launch of the AVARI Alternative Accommodation Fund, alongside the acquisition of a second asset, further expanding its position in one of Australia’s fastest-growing housing sectors.

The Fund is focused on land lease communities and
alternative accommodation assets, targeting opportunities created by Australia’s ongoing housing undersupply, population growth, changing
demographics and increasing demand for more affordable forms of housing

The announcement follows the Fund’s initial acquisition in Cairns and coincides with the purchase of a second asset in Busselton, Western
Australia, a region experiencing strong population growth, housing demand and limited affordable accommodation supply.

Unlike traditional residential property investments, the strategy centres on owning and improving the underlying land while generating recurring rental income from residents and operators. The model seeks to combine stable income characteristics with long-term capital growth driven by increasing demand for affordable lifestyle-focused housing.

Australia continues to face significant housing supply challenges, with demand consistently outpacing the delivery of new housing stock. At the same time, affordability pressures, an ageing population and changing lifestyle preferences are driving demand for housing solutions that
sit outside traditional residential markets.

The Alternative Accommodation Fund has been established to capitalise on these long-term trends through a disciplined acquisition strategy focused on underutilised accommodation assets, caravan parks, land lease communities and other alternative living opportunities capable of generating sustainable income and value creation.

AVARI Capital Partners Chief Investment Officer Ben Coughlin said the strategy reflects the firm’s long-standing approach of identifying opportunities where structural market shifts create attractive risk-adjusted investment outcomes.

“Australia’s housing needs are evolving, but investment markets have been relatively slow to recognise where some of the most compelling long-term opportunities are emerging,” said Coughlin.

“We believe land lease communities and alternative
accommodation are set to become an increasingly important part of Australia’s housing landscape. The sector sits at the intersection of several powerful
structural trends, including population growth, housing supply constraints, demographic change and growing demand for affordable lifestyle-focused living options.

While institutional capital is beginning to enter the
sector, we believe the most significant wave of institutionalisation is still ahead. For investors, that presents a rare opportunity to access a growing
asset class before it becomes more broadly recognised and competed for by larger pools of capital.”

The Fund’s acquisition strategy is underpinned by AVARI’s integrated property and capital expertise, with the team applying the same disciplined investment process that has been used across more than $1.4 billion in real estate investments and private credit transactions.

The acquisition of the Busselton asset marks an important milestone for the strategy, providing investors with exposure to a growing portfolio of assets positioned to benefit from the increasing demand for alternative housing solutions across Australia.

As governments, communities and investors continue to search for solutions to Australia’s housing shortage, AVARI expects alternative
accommodation and land lease communities to become an increasingly important component of the national housing landscape.

The AVARI Alternative Accommodation Fund is now open to eligible wholesale and sophisticated investors.

In discussion with AusBiz about the opportunity Land Lease Communities offer as a pathway to home ownership and creating a unique investment opportunity.

Explore more about the AVARI Alternative Accommodation Fund.

June 24, 2026

Simon Riordan

Valuation sits at the foundation of the private credit market, allowing lenders to properly assess risk and return and give their own investors peace of mind that their money is in safe hands. But what should be a science is often more like an art – and there’s lots of bad art out there.

That’s because many valuations use historical rather than contemporaneous market data and are made with the assumption that assets can be sold or leased, given enough time. Then there’s the agency problem to contend with – valuers are naturally incentivised to provide a higher valuation.

“If the borrower has a default, the market isn’t going to look at the valuation from the point of view of what the neighbouring property sold for,” Alan Liao, founder and managing director of real estate fund manager and lender Avari Capital Partners, told The Inside Network’s Income and Defensive Assets Symposium.

The market is going to look at the economic value of that piece of real estate, and especially in development land that’s what you can potentially build on it and sell it for, minus the cost of construction and the profit of margin that requires for the developers. We spend a huge amount of time identifying the real economic value of the real estate – and most of the time it’s not what the valuation report says.”

That doesn’t mean a valuation sheet isn’t useful as a starting point – it’s just that it doesn’t give you the true, intrinsic value of the property. And that’s important when private credit is one of the hottest asset classes around and new managers are entering the space every day.

“A lot of people don’t know what they’re doing; that’s just the reality,” Liao said. “They wake up and think they can become a fund manager. A lot of the time it’s about telling a story rather than finding out what’s factual and what’s not. Many of them don’t have a thorough due diligence process, in fact many of them don’t have a due diligence process. And they’re lending against any random valuation they can get their hands on as long as it’s a nice story they can tell investors.”

Eventually, the market will take care of those managers that shouldn’t be in it. But until then,
investors will need to do serious due diligence of their own.

“Investors need to rely on their financial advisers, and we’ve raised most our monies through financial advisers,” Liao said. “They have the knowledge to tell good and bad managers apart. And then we open the due diligence sheet to advisers or potential clients and go through it item by item. And there’s hundreds of pages of information there. That way they know we put the work in.”

“The key thing that investors need to understand is the kind of work that’s being done, and that should be documented. Any decent manager will document their due diligence process so that it’s easy for an investor to ask for that documentation. Most managers don’t have that; it’s not about ‘it’s a nice location, it’s a good developer, they’re going to make lots of money’ – that’s all opinion. It’s not factual.”

The AVARI Private Loan Income Fund (APLIF) has recently received a RECOMMENDED rating from renowned research house Core Property Research. APLIF which has returned over 10.8% since inception as of Sept 23 now features itself on 5 of the major private wealth platforms including Macquarie Wrap, Netwealth, Hub24, Praemium and Powerwrap to go alongside the independant research report. In the time since the report APLIF has also grown to over $140m across 18 investments.

Please see the research report below. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team – info@avaricapital.com.au