A thirteen-apartment bayside development that treats independence as a design brief, not a compliance checkbox.
Mentone Mews is one of the most carefully considered projects in the Nexus Developments portfolio: a thirteen-apartment building in bayside Melbourne that pairs twelve NDIS Specialist Disability Accommodation apartments with a single Care apartment, arranged over three levels. With a gross realisable value of $18 million and a status of Under Construction, it is a real, fundable, in-delivery asset rather than a concept. This article looks closely at what Mentone Mews is, why its location matters, what it means to design Specialist Disability Accommodation for independence, and how the project sits inside the broader Nexus Care pipeline.
WHAT THIS GUIDE COVERS
01. Mentone Mews at a glance
02. Why bayside Mentone is the right location
03. Designing SDA for independence, not just compliance
04. The role of the single Care apartment
05. Under construction: what delivery status means
06. How Mentone Mews fits the $52M Nexus Care pipeline
07. The NDIS investment case
08. Working with Nexus Developments on SDA
09. Frequently asked questions
Mentone Mews at a glance
Mentone Mews is a Nexus Developments project located in Mentone VIC 3194, on Balcombe Road. The building comprises thirteen apartments in total: twelve NDIS Specialist Disability Accommodation apartments and one Care apartment, delivered across three levels. The project carries a gross realisable value of $18 million and is currently Under Construction. Those are the exact figures, and they matter, because Specialist Disability Accommodation is a sector where precision is the difference between a fundable asset and a stranded one.
For Nexus Developments, Mentone Mews is a flagship expression of the Nexus Care vertical, which delivers NDIS Specialist Disability Accommodation and medical centres. The building is not a residential block with accessible features bolted on. It has been conceived from the ground up as Specialist Disability Accommodation, which means the structural grid, the circulation, the door widths, the bathroom layouts and the assistive technology provisioning were all decided before a single render was finalised.
A Nexus Developments Specialist Disability Accommodation building exterior — the completed-design reference for the Mentone Mews approach.
Mentone Mews is best understood as part of a disciplined Nexus Developments programme rather than a one-off. The company runs a $400M+ pipeline across 16 active projects and 7 sectors, and Mentone Mews is one of several Specialist Disability Accommodation assets being delivered to a consistent design and governance standard. That consistency is deliberate. It is far easier to certify, fund and operate a Specialist Disability Accommodation building when its design draws on a tested template, and Nexus Developments has built Mentone Mews on exactly that basis.
Why bayside Mentone is the right location
Location is the first thing Nexus Developments interrogates on any Specialist Disability Accommodation project, because for SDA residents the address is not a lifestyle preference — it is a determinant of how independent daily life can actually be. Mentone is an established bayside suburb in Melbourne’s south-east, well served by rail, bus routes, shopping precincts, allied health services and the foreshore. For a resident with a disability, that combination means the difference between a self-directed life and a dependent one.
Specialist Disability Accommodation is most valuable when it is embedded in an ordinary, well-connected neighbourhood rather than isolated on a cheaper fringe site. Mentone Mews places residents within reach of medical centres, supermarkets, cafes and public transport, which is precisely the environment in which support needs can be met without a resident being cut off from community life. Nexus Developments selected the Balcombe Road site for that reason.
Specialist Disability Accommodation should never be the most isolated building in a suburb. At Mentone Mews it is one of the best-connected.
The bayside location also underpins the long-term asset quality of the project. Mentone is a tightly held part of Melbourne with limited development land, which supports the durability of value across the building’s life. For investors evaluating the Nexus Care vertical, the location is not an incidental detail; it is a core part of the underwriting.
There is a further point that is easy to overlook. Specialist Disability Accommodation that is well located tends to be more reliably tenanted, because participants and their families want to live in places they would have chosen regardless of disability. By choosing Mentone for Mentone Mews, Nexus Developments is reducing one of the most material risks in the SDA sector — the risk of an accredited building that no one wants to live in because of where it sits.
Designing SDA for independence, not just compliance
The NDIS sets minimum design standards for Specialist Disability Accommodation across categories such as Improved Liveability, Fully Accessible, Robust and High Physical Support. Meeting those standards is mandatory. But meeting the minimum is not the same as designing for independence, and this is the distinction that defines the Nexus Developments approach at Mentone Mews.
What compliance-led design produces
A compliance-led building satisfies the checklist. It has the required door widths, the required hoist provisioning and the required circulation space, and then stops. The result is technically accredited but can still feel institutional, because the design effort ended the moment the standard was met. That is the outcome Nexus Developments deliberately designs against.
What independence-led design produces
Independence-led design asks a different question: can the resident do more for themselves, more comfortably, with less reliance on a support worker being physically present? At Mentone Mews that translates into considered kitchen and bathroom layouts, intuitive circulation, generous natural light, assistive technology that is built in rather than retrofitted, and apartments that read as genuine homes. The difference is felt every day by the person living there, even though much of it is invisible on a compliance schedule.
This is the standard Nexus Developments holds itself to across the Nexus Care vertical. Specialist Disability Accommodation should expand what a resident can do, not simply tick the boxes that allow a building to be accredited. At Mentone Mews the brief was written around the resident first and the standard second, and the result is a building where independence is designed in from the structural grid upward.
An accessible apartment interior from a Nexus Developments SDA project — representative of the independence-led layouts applied at Mentone Mews.
- Door widths, circulation and bathroom layouts are designed beyond the NDIS minimum so residents can move through the home with confidence.
- Assistive technology provisioning is built into the structure rather than retrofitted, reducing disruption and cost over the asset’s life.
- Natural light, outlook and finishes are treated as part of the brief so the apartments read as homes, not clinical units.
- The layouts support a range of support models, from drop-in assistance to higher-needs arrangements.
Specialist Disability Accommodation design and compliance is the floor of the Nexus Developments brief, not the ceiling.
The role of the single Care apartment
Of the thirteen apartments at Mentone Mews, twelve are NDIS Specialist Disability Accommodation apartments and one is a Care apartment. That single Care apartment is a deliberate piece of design, not a rounding error. In well-designed SDA buildings, an on-site Care or support apartment can house overnight assistance or provide a base for support workers, which materially improves the responsiveness of care for the residents in the building.
The Care apartment allows Mentone Mews to support residents with higher needs without forcing them into a more institutional setting elsewhere. It means support can be close at hand when required and absent when it is not, which is exactly the balance independence-led Specialist Disability Accommodation is meant to strike. It is one of the clearest examples of how Nexus Care thinks about buildings as care ecosystems rather than collections of units.
For investors, the Care apartment also speaks to the durability of the asset. A building configured to support a spectrum of needs is more lettable across changing tenant profiles than one locked to a single SDA category, and that flexibility is part of why Nexus Developments designs Mentone Mews the way it does.
It is also a quietly humane piece of planning. The presence of a Care apartment means a resident whose needs increase over time does not automatically have to leave the building and the community they have built. Continuity of place is one of the most underrated outcomes in disability housing, and the configuration of Mentone Mews is designed to protect it.
Under construction: what delivery status means
Mentone Mews is Under Construction. In a sector where many proposed Specialist Disability Accommodation projects never leave the planning stage, that status is meaningful. It tells investors and prospective residents that the site is secured, the permits are in hand, the design is locked and the building is physically being delivered.
Nexus Developments treats delivery as a discipline. The company’s Nexus Project Management capability runs full-lifecycle delivery, and Mentone Mews benefits from institutional-grade governance, including the company’s headline partnerships with Colliers for advisory and market intelligence and Maddocks for legal, planning and compliance. For an SDA asset, where accreditation and compliance are non-negotiable, that governance layer is part of the value.
Delivery status is also the point at which a project becomes investable in a serious sense. A proposed SDA building carries planning risk, design risk and funding risk all at once. Mentone Mews has moved past those gates: it is a thirteen-apartment building being constructed on a secured bayside site, which is a materially different risk profile from a project still seeking its permits.
An SDA project that is under construction is a very different proposition from one that is merely proposed. Mentone Mews is being built.
How Mentone Mews fits the $52M Nexus Care pipeline
Mentone Mews does not sit in isolation. Nexus Developments has assembled a Specialist Disability Accommodation pipeline of 32 SDA apartments with a combined Care gross realisable value of $52 million. Mentone Mews is one of three projects driving that programme, alongside the Ashburton SDA in Ashburton VIC 3147, which delivers 10 NDIS units at a GRV of $15 million and is Under Construction, and Mentone Heights on Balcombe Road in Mentone VIC 3194, which combines 5 townhouses with 9 NDIS units at a GRV of $19 million and is Under Planning.
Read together, these projects show a developer building scale and repeatability into Specialist Disability Accommodation rather than treating each project as a bespoke exercise. The Ashburton SDA functions as a comparable completed-design reference for Mentone Mews, while Mentone Heights extends the Nexus Care footprint within the same bayside corridor. You can review the full programme through Nexus Care and the broader project list.
A second accessible apartment interior from the Nexus Developments SDA programme, illustrating the consistent design standard applied across Nexus Care.
A 32-apartment, $52 million pipeline gives Nexus Developments the volume to standardise design details, procurement and compliance processes across projects. That standardisation is what turns Specialist Disability Accommodation from a series of one-off builds into an institutional-grade asset class — and Mentone Mews is a central part of it.
The NDIS investment case
Specialist Disability Accommodation is funded through the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which provides payments tied to accredited dwellings that meet the relevant SDA design category. For investors, the appeal of well-built SDA lies in its combination of long-dated, government-linked demand and an undersupply of compliant, well-located stock. Mentone Mews is positioned squarely in that gap: accredited-grade design, a strong bayside address, and delivery already underway.
The investment case for Mentone Mews rests on the fundamentals rather than on hype. The project is part of a $52 million Nexus Care pipeline, it is being delivered under institutional governance, and it has been designed for the durability that comes from genuine independence-led layouts. For wholesale and sophisticated investors examining the NDIS sector, this is the kind of investment-grade thinking the Nexus Wealth Fund is built around.
Independence is the organising principle behind every Nexus Developments NDIS Specialist Disability Accommodation project.
It is worth being clear-eyed: SDA investment carries real considerations around tenant demand, accreditation and policy settings, and prospective investors should take independent advice. What Nexus Developments offers at Mentone Mews is a project where the controllable risks — location, design quality, delivery status and governance — have been addressed deliberately and in advance.
Working with Nexus Developments on SDA
Mentone Mews shows how Nexus Developments approaches Specialist Disability Accommodation: a real bayside site, a thirteen-apartment building designed for independence, a single Care apartment that strengthens the care ecosystem, and a delivery status that means the project is genuinely being built. It is one project in a 32-apartment, $52 million Nexus Care pipeline, governed to the same institutional standard as every other Nexus Developments asset.
Families exploring NDIS-accredited housing options, support providers seeking quality stock, and investors evaluating the SDA sector can all engage with Nexus Developments directly. The team can walk through Mentone Mews, the Ashburton SDA and Mentone Heights, and explain how each fits the wider strategy. To start that conversation, visit Nexus Care or contact the Nexus Developments team.
Frequently asked questions
How many apartments are in Mentone Mews?
Mentone Mews by Nexus Developments comprises thirteen apartments in total — twelve NDIS Specialist Disability Accommodation apartments and one Care apartment — delivered across three levels in Mentone VIC 3194.
What is the value and status of the Mentone Mews project?
Mentone Mews has a gross realisable value of $18 million and is currently Under Construction, which means Nexus Developments has secured the site, holds the permits and is physically delivering the building.
What does it mean to design SDA for independence?
For Nexus Developments, designing Specialist Disability Accommodation for independence means going beyond the NDIS minimum design standards so residents can do more for themselves, with considered layouts, built-in assistive technology and homes that do not feel institutional.
How does Mentone Mews fit the Nexus Care pipeline?
Mentone Mews is one of three projects in the Nexus Developments SDA pipeline of 32 SDA apartments and $52 million combined Care gross realisable value, alongside the Ashburton SDA and Mentone Heights.
Who can invest in Nexus Care SDA projects?
Specialist Disability Accommodation exposure through Nexus Developments is structured for wholesale and sophisticated investors, and prospective investors should seek independent advice before committing capital.
About Nexus Developments
Nexus Developments is a leading multi-sector property development company based in Melbourne, Australia, with a project pipeline of over $400 million across residential, NDIS Specialist Disability Accommodation, Montessori-philosophy childcare, education and commercial real estate. Founded by Bhupendra (Ben) Sethia — a 25-year industry leader and Founder Chairman of JITO Australia — and Vish Singh, Nexus Developments operates with institutional-grade governance, partnerships with Colliers and Maddocks, a 7-8 star NatHERS energy standard on every new dwelling, and a commitment to contribute more than 600 dwellings to the National Housing Accord.
Across Nexus Communities, Nexus Care, Nexus Learning, Nexus Commercial and the Nexus Wealth Fund, Nexus Developments delivers projects designed to compound long-term value for investors and communities alike. Whether you are an investor seeking exposure to Melbourne property development, a first-home buyer looking at Melbourne growth corridors, a family considering NDIS-accredited Specialist Disability Accommodation, or a landowner looking for a delivery partner, Nexus Developments has a pathway for you.
Take the next step with Nexus Developments
- Explore current Nexus Developments projects across Melbourne and regional Victoria →
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- Speak to our investor relations team about the Nexus Wealth Fund →
- Learn how Nexus Care designs SDA housing built for independence →
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Disclaimer: This article is general information only and does not constitute financial, investment, legal or tax advice. Investments in Nexus Wealth Fund products are available to wholesale and sophisticated investors as defined under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Renders are artist impressions and indicative only.