Housing developers showing interest in ACT: Colliers

Larry SchlesingerDecember 8, 2020

Institutional developers are showing interest in residential development sites in suburbs and regional areas close to Canberra.

There is particular interest in the ACT region due to a shortage of available land, strong wages growth, unemployment holding steady and overall good local economic conditions, according to Tim Mutton, associate director of consultancy at Colliers.

In addition, private developers are looking to get into a market that has to date primarily been developed by the ACT Government.

Mutton recently negotiated the sale of a 35-hectare site in Ngunnawal to the Village Building Company for $36.25 million in an auction that attracted beds from 11 local and interstate companies.

The sale comes as the ACT Government’s Land Development Agency has announced it will sell the first sites on the eastern side of the Kingston Foreshore project.

CB Richard Ellis agents Mark Nicholls and Andrew Stewart have been appointed to market the three sites in a precinct known as “The Peninsula” with tenders due to close September 29, 2011.

The three blocks, which have a total area of 9,925 square metres, can accommodate approximately 300 residences. They have a mixed-use zoning, allowing for significant flexibility in relation to any future development.

Mutton says the Ngunnawal site is attractive “due to its size, location and likely position within the market when finally developed”.

Another factor in its appeal is its pricing.

Village chief executive Bob Winnel has suggested two bedroom homes will be priced at about $335,000, and the three-bedroom house-and-land packages will be priced from $365,000 to $400,000.

Mutton says there is strong interest in the ACT in retail blocks priced between $400,000 and $450,000.

“The estate was priced at a point where the market is interested,” he says.

Furthermore, according to Mutton, the Ngunnawal block is just big enough to attract interest from large institutional developers.

Approximately 475 dwellings will be built on the Ngunnawal site, situated 18 kilometres from the CBD.

The winning bid came from the Canberra Estate Consortium No 30, a subsidiary of the Village, which has committed to providing 122 two-bedroom houses and a further 102 three-bedroom house-and-land packages.

The development will be completed over the next three years and will comprise townhouses, villas, duplexes, free-standing homes and larger residential lots.

In the next few months 131 blocks of land ranging in size from 420 square metres to 900 square metres and priced from $220,000 to $355,000 will go to market.

The Village is currently developing The Fair at North Watson, 6.6 kilometres from the Canberra CBD. It will comprise 316 homes upon completion.

Other Village developments underway include Nexus on Flemington Road in Gungahlin, where 110 one- and two-bedroom apartments are being sold priced between $299,000 and $374,000.

The Ngunnawal auction was conducted by Colliers International on behalf of the Land Development Agency.

Larry Schlesinger

Larry Schlesinger was a property writer at Property Observer

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