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Maggie Jin is opening the Yumiao Cat Cafe in Waterloo. Picture: David Swift
Pet cafes, grooming centres and other novel animal amenities are appearing in new housing blocks as developers sniff out ways to attract owners and tenants with four-legged friends.
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.
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There will be up to 10 rescue cats for customers to interact with, along with coffee and bubble tea. Picture: David Swift
Crown Group director of property management Anthony Caudullo said the company had foreseen the growing craze of pets in apartments. And at a time when unit asking rents across the city have dropped and vacancy rates have soared, Mr Caudullo said appealing to pet owners set their developments apart.
“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.
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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.
YuMiao co-owner Maggie Jin 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.
“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.