M&G Real Estate buys Novus on Bowen build-to-rent tower for $215m

On 28 October 2026, Real Estate Source reported that London-based M&G Real Estate has acquired the Novus on Bowen build-to-rent tower at 2 Bowen Crescent, Melbourne, for $215 million. The 215-apartment, 17-storey tower sits near the South Melbourne border, about 150 metres from Anzac Station and close to Albert Park Lake. The report did not name the seller.

Why it matters

The $215 million price works out to roughly $1 million per apartment for the completed Novus on Bowen tower. M&G Real Estate already held a 95 per cent stake in the Novus Build-to-Rent Trust, having committed $450 million to that trust in April 2022, so the deal brings the completed Bowen Crescent tower into a structure M&G largely already owns. The report describes it as M&G’s sixth Asia Pacific living-sector investment in under two years, and the first Australian asset acquired under the firm’s Asia Living Property Strategy, which it says holds a portfolio worth about $680 million across multifamily, student accommodation, land lease and senior living. For developers and asset managers tracking Melbourne’s build-to-rent pipeline, the deal shows offshore capital continuing to back completed, leasing assets rather than only development-stage sites, alongside local developers such as Salta Properties, which topped out its own $500 million Riverline build-to-rent tower in Richmond in October.

The numbers

Novus on Bowen comprises 215 apartments across 17 storeys and 26,000 square metres of gross floor area, with a mix of one, two and three-bedroom homes. The building includes co-working space, a gym, a swimming pool, a sauna and a cold plunge. Current asking rents start at $775 a week for a one-bedroom apartment and $920 a week for a two-bedroom apartment, according to the report. The site has a longer history behind it: Novus, the project’s developer, paid $42.4 million for the 1,864 square metre site in 2023, after which the scheme was redesigned from build-to-sell to build-to-rent, with Rothelowman as architect. The City of Port Phillip approved the project in February 2024. M&G’s $450 million commitment to the Novus Build-to-Rent Trust in April 2022 was seeded by the 173-apartment Novus on Sturt tower in Southbank, which opened in November 2024. The report puts M&G’s global living-sector assets under management at more than US$9 billion.

What’s next

Adam Hirst and Jason Goldsworthy, both previously Mirvac executives, started Novus in 2021 with backing from David Southon’s Aliro Group, and the company has set itself a target of building and holding roughly 10,000 build-to-rent homes. The developer has other projects under way, including a West Melbourne build-to-rent site bought last year with Japan’s Kanden Realty & Developments, for which no price has been disclosed. For M&G, the Bowen Crescent acquisition adds a second operating Melbourne asset to its Australian book alongside Novus on Sturt, the 173-apartment tower in Southbank. The report does not give a yield, a full-occupancy date or the seller’s identity.