Case study · South East Melbourne, VIC
Twenty medium-density townhouses. Four months on the retail market produced two sales. Repositioned for investors and taken to a national audience, the remaining eighteen were concluded in six weeks.
20
Townhouses in the release
2
Sold in four months of retail campaign
18
Sold under the new strategy
6 weeks
To conclude the balance
The situation
A Melbourne-based builder and developer had twenty medium-density townhouses ready for market in the city's south-east growth corridor. The homes were priced between $650,000 and $750,000 — competitive product, well built, in an established growth area.
The campaign ran the conventional way. An internal sales team, listings across the major real estate portals, and generic advertising aimed at the retail owner-occupier market. It ran for four months.
In that time, two of the twenty were sold.
Every month of that campaign carried holding costs, finance costs and an opportunity cost on the next project. The longer stock sits, the more the market reads it as a problem — and the harder it becomes to sell at all.
The pivot
Campaign one
4 months · Internal sales team · Portal listings · Local owner-occupier audience
Marketed as homes to people buying a home, in a corridor with abundant competing supply and buyers who could afford to wait. The product competed on emotion against every other new build in the district.
2 of 20 sold in four months
Campaign two
6 weeks · Strategy formulated and run by Slava360 · Interstate and local investors · Yield-led proposition
Repositioned as an investment-grade asset and taken beyond Victoria, to interstate buyers who read the Melbourne market as exceptional relative value. The product now competed on numbers, against other investments — not against the townhouse next door.
18 of 20 sold in six weeks · The balance sold earlier
The strategy
The first decision was the hardest one to sell to the client: withdraw the remaining eighteen properties from the retail market entirely. Stock that has been publicly listed and unsold for months carries a story with it. Relaunching to a new audience only works if the new audience meets the product clean.
From there, Slava360 rebuilt the proposition around the buyer who was actually in the market for this asset — the investor.
The campaign was taken well beyond the local corridor to investor networks in other states, where Victorian price points read as exceptional value against comparable stock at home.
A rental support arrangement, removing the vacancy risk that makes a remote investor hesitate on a completed build.
New-build depreciation and the tax position modelled and presented up front, so the after-tax return was part of the proposition rather than something the buyer had to work out alone.
Property management and turnkey inclusions arranged so an interstate buyer could acquire, tenant and hold the asset without setting foot in Victoria.
The result
The relaunched campaign concluded all eighteen remaining sales inside a six-week window — a release that had produced two results across the preceding four months.
For the builder, that meant capital released, debt retired and a completed project closed out, in a market where comparable stock was still sitting. It is an exceptional outcome in a difficult retail landscape, and it did not come from a price cut.
The homes were never the issue. They were being sold to the wrong market, in the wrong way, on the wrong strategy.
Jason Nevins
Vendor Advocacy
If a release has stalled, the campaign is usually aimed at the wrong buyer. We'll look at the project, the pricing and the audience, and tell you honestly whether a different strategy would change the result.
Client details withheld by agreement. Project: 20 medium-density townhouses, south-east Melbourne, priced $650,000–$750,000. Two properties sold during the initial retail campaign; the remaining eighteen were concluded under the strategy described. Campaign periods and sales outcomes as recorded at the time. Past project results are not a guarantee of future outcomes; incentive structures including rental support arrangements vary by project and are subject to the terms agreed with each vendor. This page is general information only and is not financial, taxation or investment advice.