Urban Activation: A Partner For Success

WORDS: Ocean Road Magazine PHOTOGRAPHY Supplied

Founded in Melbourne, Urban Activation made its mark by partnering with major developers to deliver marketing services to iconic projects in its home market before venturing into Adelaide, Newcastle, major regional markets and New Zealand.

Project marketing group Urban Activation, a company that has partnered with some of Australia’s largest private developers over the past decade, is as bullish as ever on the Gold Coast property market.

Company founder and director of sales and marketing Matt George is well placed to make that assessment. His company has a team of property marketing specialists working in some of the hottest lifestyle property markets in Australia and New Zealand.

Urban Activation, which has been responsible for the sale of over 4,500 residences across multiple projects since it was founded in 2013, currently oversees a pipeline of over $2.5 billion in projects for developers including Hirsch & Faigen, Iris Capital Group, Third.i Group, Ninety-Four Feet and Malaysia’s MRCB International.

The runaway success it achieved for Melbourne-based Hirsch & Faigen across three developments on the Gold Coast since 2020 has affirmed Mr. George’s view that Australia’s lifestyle capital is maintaining momentum.

This is further reflected in the launch earlier this year of 26 Vista in Surfers Paradise, a $400 million residential development undertaken by MRCB International, one of the largest infrastructure companies in Malaysia.

“Since launching earlier this year, MRCB is in final negotiations with builders and intends to commence construction in 2023 with completion in 2026,” said Mr. George.

“Given MRCB is a $14 billion company, they have the ability to commit to construction while we’re selling this newly released project. Urban Activation remains confident in the strength of the Gold Coast market, due to the under-supply and ongoing strong demand shown by the purchasers of this project in the first few months of 2023.

In 2017, Urban Activation took its first step into international markets after being appointed by Ninety-Four Feet to its 51 Albert development in Auckland. The project, which comprises 225 hotel rooms and 30 high-end residences and penthouses, is set to be completed in 2024.

A second New Zealand development is also in train in Queenstown, a $3 billion mixed-use hospitality and residential development being undertaken by Ninety-Four Feet in collaboration with Centuria. The first stage of apartments is to be launched in July.

“These projects have shown our ability to deal at the top end,” said Mr. George.

“We are very experienced and our developers are very experienced, and we’ve shown our ability to adapt to different markets.

“My team has been together for the best part of a decade, while our developer clients have had relationships with us for five, 10 and some of them 15 years.

“We understand all elements of development, but we are the strongest in sales and marketing. We also know that our clients are very strong on a national and international basis. They understand construction before we launch into sales, and we know they are going to proceed to build, and that’s very important in the current market.”