Australia: LiveStay, a national operator that this week combined its operations under one name, has begun construction on a combined hotel and coliving tower in the Adelaide CBD for its rebrand debut.
LiveStay is the new overarching brand launched this week that brings together Veriu Hotels & Suites, Punthill Apartment Hotels and UKO.
Scheduled to open in 2028, the 17-storey tower will comprise a 120-key hotel and 120 coliving homes.
Slated for a site at 124 Wakefield Street in the Adelaide CBD, the hotel and coliving tower will cater to overnight corporate travellers, extended-stay guests and long-term residents. The target demographic for the property will be residents aged 20 to 35.
The hotel rooms – located on the top 11 storeys with the co-living on the lower six levels – will all be self-contained, one-bedroom studios.
“It makes for a very efficient design because the boundaries are blurring between short, medium, and stay in city living,” said LiveStay managing director Rhys Williams. “And so having products that can support a diverse length of stay and meet the needs of people coming into a city is really important. It could well be the case where someone checks in and they stay in the apartment hotel for two weeks but then their contract’s extended and they want to be there for six months, and they can move within the tower and meet their needs that way.”
“By combining different living models within one asset, we can create more resilient, higher-performing developments that respond to multiple demand streams,” added LiveStay chief executive Zed Sanjana. “The Veriu component will have a mix of studio, studio interconnecting and accessible units suited to families and group stays.”
LiveStay launched with 90 sites operating or under construction in all jurisdictions apart from the Northern Territory. The group’s assets comprise 5950 keys, and construction on a further six sites is due to begin this year and next. Recent activity includes the opening of Punthill Narrabundah in Canberra and a pipeline of new projects including sites at Ryde, Epping, Shepparton, South Yarra and Albury.
UKO completed six properties last year, and has a further eight developments under construction in Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane, and Randwick, Botany and Mascot in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
Highlights:
- LiveStay has begun construction on a 17-storey development at 124 Wakefield Street in Adelaide, delivering 120 hotel rooms and 120 co-living units by 2028
- The tower is designed for short-, medium-, and long-term stays, allowing residents to move within the building as their housing needs change
- The scheme is aimed at 20–35-year-olds, as well as corporate and extended-stay travellers
- Hotel units occupy the upper 11 floors, with co-living on the lower six, all featuring self-contained one-bedroom studio layouts
- Scaled national platform and brand integration: LiveStay consolidates Veriu Hotels & Suites, Punthill Apartment Hotels, and UKO, operating 90 sites and 5,950 keys with further developments underway across Australia
