Two of Brisbane’s best development sites are on the block with private players Metro Property Development and Urban Construct looking to sell properties that can sustain major towers.
Urban Construct is quietly offering a the site of a planned $400 million Fortitude Valley development. The site, which has approval for two 25-storey towers housing 556 units and associated retail, is being handled by CBRE, but Metro has set the pace with recent sales.
Metro is set to market its Montpelier Road site after receiving heavy interest from local and overseas developers looking to get a foothold in the Brisbane market.
Metro this month sold Brunswick Central for about $35m to Melbourne-based Accord Property Group. It had optioned up the Fortitude Valley site from the Power family in 2014 for a similar price and, while it was unable to reap the spectacular gains it received when it onsold other sites to Chinese-backed R&F Properties, it came out ahead.
Metro chief executive Luke Hartman said the latest move was in line with company’s strategy to trade on some sites and develop others. James Walsh, Deloitte Real Estate and Rick Bird, Ray White, will start a campaign for the site next week.
A DA is underway for the property, which includes 509 apartments spread across five towers of eight stories that can be staged. Metro remains committed to Brisbane, and later this month will launch Brisbane Apartments, the final stages of its Central Village masterplan development in Fortitude Valley, which will have 535 apartments across two towers.
In May, Metro will launch 374 apartments at its Manning Street site in South Brisbane.
In addition to its Brisbane apartment development pipeline Metro has forged deeper into the NSW market, where it now has four sites, including in the city’s inner western suburb of Strathfield, where it undertaking 50 townhouses and 175 apartments.
It has close to 300 house starts on the drawing board over the next 12 months and is using a wholesale building model under the Creation Homes brand to work with both large and small land developers.
Mr Hartman said that the NSW growth strategy would see Metro target a minimum of 400 sales in Sydney this year and Creation Homes had already released more than 200 house and land sites.
Metro’s sales are strong in the sub-$800,000 category but particularly in the $650,000-$700,000 band. Retail sales account for about half of the close to 300 starts this year, with work on other lots accounting for the other half.
Metro is finding strong demand for townhouses in areas including Kellyville in the city’s northwest and in Catherine Field in the southwest.
Original Publish: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/