The Nightingale Model provides an alternate path for property developers.
The Nightingale Model rules out marketing and advertising from its projects. But the success of its first example, The Commons, has meant the revolutionary model is its own best advertisement.
The Nightingale Model is a new pathway for residential apartment developments. With a triple-bottom-line focus, the projects are designed to be socially, environmentally and financially sustainable.
The goal is to create well-designed, lower-cost apartments by simplifying the development process and the buildings themselves, without compromising on design or quality.
All too often, developers take a cookie-cutter approach to projects, delivering a uniform product that takes no risks. In order to appeal to the broadest possible market, every apartment ticks every box – every apartment has parking, internal laundries, two bathrooms, air-conditioning.
But the emphasis of The Nightingale Model is need, not desire. Do we need air-conditioning? Do we need two bathrooms? Can we ride a bike, rather than drive?
It seems that many buyers are happy to forego luxuries, for the opportunity to buy and live in a well-designed building, with an active community. A growing demographic is interested in living simpler lives, with less waste and a smaller environmental footstep, and less luxurious, more environmental properties have considerable appeal.
The Nightingale Model meets the demand head on. It first project, The Commons, has received much critical acclaim and has huge popular appeal. The Commons does not have car parking. It sits right on the train line, and is close to bike tracks. It has no air-conditioning. Residents use fans when the weather is hot, and hydronic heating to warm things up. A communal laundry provides opportunities for residents to mingle.
Nightingale projects bypass real estate agents (cost approximately $250,000), display suites ($100,000), and marketing and advertising ($50,000). These savings can be used for better quality materials, and can lower the final cost of each apartment, since profits are capped.
The Commons has become, in effect, its own showroom. The project has been so successful and is so admired, that the waiting list for new Nightingale apartments is long, and growing.
A consortium of developers, all architects, has acquired a new site across the road from The Commons and is in the design documentation phase. Construction is due to commence later this year.
A third Nightingale Project is in the wings. Six Degrees and HIP V. HYPE have acquired a site in Fairfield.