How Western Sydney shaped CBRE development specialist Alex Mirzaian How Western Sydney Shaped CBRE’s Alex Mirzaian

As population growth, infrastructure spending and rezoning reshape Sydney’s west, CBRE senior director Alex Mirzaian has built a career around navigating the increasingly complex market for development sites.

For decades, Sydney’s prestige property conversation was dominated by the harbour and the city’s eastern suburbs. Yet some of its most consequential development activity has been taking place in a different part of the metropolitan area.

Population growth, major transport projects, new employment centres and extensive rezoning have steadily changed the scale of opportunity across Western Sydney. They have also made development transactions more complicated.

It is in this environment that Alex Mirzaian has built his career.

Mirzaian is a senior director within CBRE’s Development NSW business, operating across the company’s Western Sydney and North Sydney offices. He joined CBRE in February 2013 and has accumulated more than 15 years of property experience, with a particular focus on the sale and acquisition of development sites.

His professional trajectory reflects Western Sydney’s transformation from a market sometimes treated as peripheral to one that now plays a central role in the city’s growth.

Building expertise in a changing market

Selling a development site is markedly different from selling an established home.

Its value is influenced not only by location and land area but by planning controls, permissible density, infrastructure, construction economics, funding conditions and the intended end market. Two neighbouring parcels can have dramatically different development potential.

A successful campaign therefore depends on establishing what the land could become and identifying the buyers capable of delivering that outcome.

Mirzaian developed his practice in Western Sydney as investment and development attention moved towards the region’s growth corridors. Working in the market over an extended period gave him exposure to different planning environments, buyer groups and property cycles.

That experience is increasingly valuable as Western Sydney’s development landscape becomes more sophisticated. Landowners may be dealing with changes to zoning or density, while developers must test potential projects against rising construction costs, financing constraints and changing buyer demand.

A property’s theoretical development yield may look compelling on paper. Whether that yield can be delivered economically is another question.

More than finding a buyer

Development-site sales are often described in terms of the final price, but the structure of a transaction can be just as important.

Settlement periods, planning conditions, due-diligence requirements, deposits and access arrangements can materially influence the attractiveness and certainty of a deal. A higher offer with extensive conditions may not ultimately provide a vendor with a better outcome than a cleaner proposal from a well-capitalised buyer.

Mirzaian’s work centres on managing those competing considerations through a structured sales process.

That begins with understanding the site and the vendor’s priorities. It then extends to identifying likely purchaser groups, presenting the development opportunity coherently and managing negotiations between parties that may have very different commercial requirements.

According to the profile supplied to Kanebridge, Mirzaian’s clients have included private landowners, developers, offshore investors, government bodies, religious and community organisations, and receivers handling more complex or distressed assets.

Each category presents a different brief.

A family disposing of a long-held property may be primarily concerned with price, certainty and timing. A government agency may require a highly transparent process. A receiver will often be working within strict legal and financial parameters, while an experienced developer may place greater emphasis on planning potential and settlement flexibility.

The agent’s role is consequently closer to that of a transaction adviser than a conventional salesperson.

Working across Sydney’s property markets

Mirzaian’s position across CBRE’s Western Sydney and North Sydney operations also reflects the way development capital now moves throughout the metropolitan area.

Developers and investors rarely confine themselves to one geographical market. They compare opportunities according to planning risk, projected demand, construction feasibility and the availability of finance.

Relationships established through one transaction can therefore lead to opportunities in a very different part of the city.

Western Sydney remains an important part of Mirzaian’s professional identity, but his current remit extends beyond it. That broader coverage allows him to connect owners and purchasers operating across established and emerging Sydney markets.

It also provides a view of how buyer priorities change between locations. A project in a mature North Shore suburb may depend on scarcity and an affluent local downsizer market. A larger Western Sydney site might instead derive value from future population growth, transport investment or the potential to create housing at scale.

The fundamentals of the transaction remain consistent, but the development and marketing strategy must respond to the location.

A market that rewards clear advice

Sydney’s development sector is operating in a more demanding environment than it was during periods of cheap capital and rapid price growth.

Developers are scrutinising construction costs, presales, finance and delivery risk more closely. Vendors must distinguish between ambitious expressions of interest and offers with a credible prospect of reaching settlement.

In that setting, disciplined transaction management becomes particularly important.

A competitive campaign still needs to generate interest, but it must also give prospective purchasers enough information and confidence to progress. Clear timelines, appropriately managed due diligence and realistic communication can help preserve competition without compromising certainty.

Mirzaian’s career offers a useful perspective on the evolution of development sales. His rise has occurred alongside that of Western Sydney itself: a market shaped by growth, infrastructure and increasingly complex development decisions.

The value of an adviser in this environment is not measured solely by the ability to attract the highest headline offer. It lies in understanding the site, recognising the motivations of each stakeholder and creating a process capable of turning interest into a completed transaction.

Fact box

Name: Alex Mirzaian
Position: Senior Director, Development NSW
Company: CBRE
Office coverage: Western Sydney and North Sydney
Joined CBRE: February 2013
Property experience: More than 15 years, according to the supplied profile
Specialisation: Development-site sales, buyer engagement, negotiation and transaction structuring
Client sectors: Private landowners, developers, offshore investors, government agencies, community and religious organisations, and receivers
Geographical focus: Greater Sydney, with an established background in Western Sydney

The Sydney developer-builder, which typically retains its projects, is offering 54 residences off the plan on Spencer Street, with prices starting at $3.9 million.

HSN Property Group has launched Maison Jolene in Rose Bay, giving buyers a rare opportunity to purchase off the plan from a developer-builder that has spent more than two decades building a predominantly build-to-hold portfolio in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. HSN values that portfolio at $4 billion.

Located at 2–16 Spencer Street, Maison Jolene comprises 54 residences, including house-sized two- and three-bedroom apartments, sub-penthouses and penthouses. Prices start at $3.9 million, according to HSN, with many residences designed to capture views across Rose Bay, Sydney Harbour and the city skyline.

James Nixon, head of projects at The Rubinstein Group, is handling the sales campaign alongside agency founder Gavin Rubinstein. He says the launch is an unusual opportunity for buyers who have followed the developer’s work.

“HSN is renowned for building entire projects and rarely selling a single apartment to the open market, so Maison Jolene really is a first for potential buyers who have been following the brand across previous projects,” Nixon says.

HSN worked with architecture practice MHN Design Union and interiors studio The Unlisted Collective on the development. A rhythm of arches and deep-set openings gives the building its presence on Spencer Street, while the residences are positioned to make the most of natural light, privacy and outlook. Landscaping frames the arrival and carries through to the shared outdoor spaces.

“Maison Jolene was conceived to bring a touch of European elegance to Rose Bay, drawing on the understated charm of Mayfair and the romance of Paris while remaining grounded in the relaxed character of Sydney’s eastern suburbs,” says Rafi Assouline, founder and director of HSN Property Group.

The apartments were designed with established Rose Bay downsizers in mind. Large kitchens, generous storage and flexible living areas are intended to ease the move from a family home, with layouts that can also accommodate families and professionals looking for more space in an apartment.

The shared amenities are designed as an extension of those homes. Residents will have access to a lounge, private dining room and landscaped alfresco entertaining area. A wellness retreat brings together a magnesium pool, cold plunge, sauna, steam room and heated stone recovery bench, alongside a gym and dedicated space for Pilates and yoga.

Inside the apartments, the curves of the façade recur in the cabinetry and balustrades. Custom wall sconces, tapware and patterned parquetry sit alongside carved marble basins, hammered-glass shower screens and recessed stone niches. Timber veneer wardrobes have leather-clad drawers, while an Art Deco-inspired motif appears in the raised ceiling detail, joinery and built-in velvet bedheads.

“Maison Jolene is at once contemporary and old world, with custom-designed parquetry flooring and an art deco-inspired motif juxtaposing with the curvature of the arched facade, balustrade and internal cabinetry,” Assouline says.

The kitchens bring several of those ideas together in a sculptural, bubble-shaped island. Assouline helped design and engineer the curved form and personally selected the marble, which is bookmatched so the veining mirrors across adjoining pieces.

“With each of our projects, I look for symmetry in design,” he says. “Crafting the apartments is like solving a puzzle of one thousand pieces; one little detail wrong could mean the picture doesn’t translate correctly once it’s finished.”

HSN will develop and build Maison Jolene, overseeing the project from design through to construction. The family-owned company says it has delivered more than 270 homes, has 200 apartments under construction and has a 100 per cent completion record.

“As a private, integrated developer-builder, we maintain close control over every stage of a project,” Assouline says. “We see our projects as collaborative partnerships with our architects, interior designers and specialist trades with whom we have refined a very unique aesthetic, to ensure every detail is considered for those who will live there.”

For Nixon, the developer’s involvement in both design and construction is part of the pitch to buyers. “The attention to design excellence, combined with HSN’s proven track record in delivering ultra-high-end developments, ensures a level of rarity and enduring quality seldom seen in today’s market,” he says.

“To purchase an HSN property is to acquire a property that will not just hold its value but stand the test of time as a timeless piece of Sydney real estate.”

The Spencer Street address puts residents close to Rose Bay’s village cafés and restaurants, foreshore walks and ferry service, with beaches, golf courses and schools nearby. Maison Jolene is now selling off the plan through James Nixon and Gavin Rubinstein.