Pet-friendly property on the rise in new developments as way to attract new tenants

The initiatives come as the RSPCA reported a 30 per cent rise in adoptions from their shelters across NSW during the first wave of COVID last year — with increased time at home correlating with a rise in pet ownership. The pet industry was ­already a burgeoning sector. Aussies spent $12.2 billion on pet services and products in 2019 and 61 per cent of households owned at least one pet, according to Pet Medicines Australia.

Dogs lead the way at an average of $1627 spent per pup annually, while cats cost their owners an average of $962 each.

“We saw a future trend emerging and became one of the first Sydney developers to accommodate pets and cater to that demand with our building design (and) our ­retail mix,” he said.

At Waterfall, Crown Group’s latest development in Waterloo, pets have been ­provided for with 2600sqm of internal gardens including grassed areas. The development is surrounded by 3600sqm of dog-friendly parks, two pet-focused retail spaces, dog grooming parlour Baby Pet Studio, and cat cafe YuMiao, to open in March.

Maggie Jin, who co-founded YuMiao with Mavey Yu, said there will be up to 10 rescue cats for customers to interact with, along with coffee and bubble tea.

Adoptions are up 30 per cent.Source:istock

“A lot of people have been very stressed because of COVID. I think for most cat lovers, being able to come home to your cat makes you forget about everything,” she said. “So I want to provide people with an opportunity and a place for them to relax with cats, take photos and just watch them having fun in our space. I’m sure it’s also great for your mental health.”

Mr Caudullo said about 10 per cent of residential applications among Crown Group’s developments were from potential tenants with pets. Since COVID, that number has doubled. “As a ­result, our retail leasing team has designed the ­retail mix to incorporate pet-friendly outlets and our ­development teams have modified the ­design of all our future developments — common area and lift lobby floor finishes all have hard wearing surfaces that are resilient to little paws and occasional ­accidents,” he said.