Stockland plans house and land city north of Melbourne
Property developer Stockland is set to construct two new residential towns on the Melbourne metropolitan fringe.
Stockland will commence construction in the next few months on its $4.6 billion Cloverton residential development 35 kilometres north of Melbourne, creating 11,000 new homes.
Previously known as the Lockerbie sheep station, the 30 year project has been described as the largest masterplanned residential community development it has ever undertaken in Victoria.
It is on 1,141 hectares at Kalkallo in Melbourne’s northern growth corridor, on the eastern side of the Hume Highway. The site encompasses parts of the Hume, Whittlesea and Mitchell LGAs.
More than 30,000 residents are expected to take up residence in Cloverton. The first land sales will occur shortly with settlements scheduled in the 2016 financial year.
Andrew Whitson, the CEO residential at Stockland, said the project was aligned with the economic opportunities that existed in Victoria, given the state’s 21.4% contribution to national GDP and 24.8% share of the national population.
Whitson hopes Stockland can replicate and expand on the success achieved at the multi-award-winning Highlands residential community at Craigieburn where public-private partnerships facilitated the construction of a regional hospital, childcare facilities, new public and private schools, and a regional tertiary institution, the Hume Global Learning Centre.
Craigieburn's Highgate Reserve features an MCG-sized football oval and hosts regular VFL games. The Richmond Football Club have also used the ground as a second training facility.
The Lockerbie Sheep Station was purchased by Stockland for around $300 million, Australia’s largest ever individual land transaction when announced in 2010. The Burgess family had previously been in exclusive negotiations with developer, Delfin Lend Lease, for development rights, but the deal did not get to requisite signatures.
The furniture making Burgess family had bought the bulk of the property in 1979, paying about $920,000, with the property sold by the daughters.
Stockland has also acquired 65 hectares of residential zoned land at Clyde North in Casey, in the south-east of Melbourne.
The group said it will create a new masterplanned community at the site over a six-year period, with around 800 new homes, at a $128 million development cost.
Stockland said construction on the project in the Clyde Creek Precinct Structure Plan area will begin in 2017, with the first settlements in the 2019 financial year.