Billionaires play in the Park
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It is no secret that Macquarie Park has been a favourite amongst Australia’s leading property developers and investors with AMP, Goodman, Stockland and the like all taking a substantial stake in the precinct.
Since the early days in the mid 1960’s when the bushland suburb of North Ryde was rezoned for employment land, developers and prospective investors have found solace in the safe havens of Macquarie Park which has transformed into the “Silicon Valley of Sydney” with global tech and software giants such as Microsoft, Oracle and Novartis calling it home.
Macquarie University was built in the early 1960’s as Sydney’s much needed third university, construction of residential dwellings then transpired around the fringes and soon after Macquarie Shopping Centre opened for business which proved to be a major draw card for international and domestic businesses. Since then, Macquarie Park has positioned itself as a power house in the commercial market with over 850,000 square meters of office space creating a work force of over 45,000 and with a competitive 7 percent vacancy rate.
Since 2015 when the Herring Road Precinct was rezoned, we have seen a new form of investment with local and international residential developers acquiring all the newly re zoned land with over $1 billion dollars being transacted since 2015. According to the NSW Government there is over $2.7 billion in Development Applications awaiting approval with a substantial amount also in the pipeline.
The newly created strata laws brought into effect on 1 December 2016 has proven to be the catalyst for site amalgamations in the Herring Road precinct.
Savills Residential Site Sales Directors Stuart Cox and Neil Cooke have been instrumental in amalgamating these sites and have recently taken 15-19 Cottonwood Crescent to market with an outstanding response from international and local developers in the first couple of days.
This site encapsulates three existing blocks of 15 two bedroom apartments, capable of being redeveloped into a landmark 21 storey 200 unit development under the current development controls.
According to Stuart Cox, “The re-gentrification of Macquarie Park will be home to over 10,000 new dwellings in the next 10 years with residents benefiting from the governments heavy involvement in upgrading public infrastructure through integrated transport connections and improving transport times to and from Sydney and Parramatta CBD’s.”
Strong demand for Macquarie Park has always stemmed from its education and retail backbone that has provided for over 40,000 students and 45,000 employees, new demand stems from the proximity to Sydney and Parramatta CBD’s through the new Metro Sydney Project which will provide trains every four minutes in peak hours.
Macquarie Park is also the second largest employment region in NSW and the fourth largest CBD in Australia with employment figures by BIS Shrapnel quoting a growth of over 40,000 new jobs by 2031. Residential developers have recently been acquiring sites at rates well in excess of $3,500 per square meter of Gross Floor Area for the privilege to own and develop in the extremely hot Herring Road Precinct.
This article was written by Johnathon Broome, Savills Residential Site Sales Executive.
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