New Zealand retirement village operator Ryman Healthcare is to spend $NZ200 million ($A183.13 million) building its third village in Melbourne.

The Christchurch-based company purchased a 2.5-hectare site in Burwood East, part of a Frasers Property Australia redevelopment of the 20.5ha former Burwood East brickworks, it said.

The site will be redeveloped into a $NZ200m retirement village for more than 400 residents, with independent living apartments and an agedcare centre including specialist dementia care.

“We’re delighted to announce we’ve bought our third site in Melbourne,” managing director Simon Challies said.

“It is in a very established section of Melbourne with Box Hill to the north and Mount Waverley to the south, and is one of the largest undeveloped sites in the eastern suburbs.”

Ryman’s research had shown a shortage of care options in the surrounding area, he said.

Ryman expanded into Australia with the first residents moving into its Wheelers Hill village in May 2014. It bought and started developing its Brandon Park site in 2014.

It signalled this purchase when posting its first-half profit in November, saying it had signed a contract to buy a third site in Melbourne.

The company’s profit advanced to $NZ132.6m in the six months ended September 30, 2015, from $NZ107.9m a year earlier.

Some 160 units were completed in the first half and it expects to build 450 units and 330 residential care beds in the second half, keeping it on track to complete a record 950 units for the year ending March 31, up from 875 the previous year.

Like other retirement village developers and operators, Ryman is looking to latch onto an ageing demographic, and expects to have five villages in Melbourne by 2020.

Ryman is New Zealand’s largest retirement village operator, with 9,000 residents at 30 villages.