Land shortage looming

Approvals, lack of essential infrastructure hold back major developments

TWO massive tracts of land at Worongary and Coomera need to be developed in the next few years or the Gold Coast will face a severe land shortage, experts say.

Property boffins agree it is crucial that plans for the Perron Group’s $1 billion Pacific View estate at Worongary, and Polaris Coomera’s next stage of the Coomera Town Centre, are unlocked for the supply of land to keep up with demand.

Urbis Gold Coast director Matt Schneider said opportunities for developers to buy low-density sites and put house-and-land packages to the market were becoming slimmer.

He pointed towards Stockland’s Foreshore Coomera development, on the corner of Foxwell and Oakey Creek roads, as an example.

Stockland is a major developer, however Foreshore is the last of its low-density sites – the rest are medium density in places such as Hope Island.

“We’re seeing strong de- mand to push those projects forward and we’re receiving a lot of interest in new land projects in the city, but there are not many opportunities there,” Mr Schneider said.

“Those land development projects are very tightly held.”

Mr Schneider said the holdup with Polaris and Pacific View was that developers needed final environmental approvals from the Federal Government for the projects.

“Both of those are really in the final stage of the permitting process,” he said.

“So it is the approval at the federal level that is the last piece of the puzzle.

“They are the two largest projects in the city, in terms of residential communities.

“It is important that we see construction commence in the next few years at the latest.”

If those developments did not proceed, the Gold Coast could lose out to northern NSW where developer Bob Ell is planning major projects at Cobaki Lakes and Kings Forest.

Mr Schneider said the land price differential between the Gold Coast and major capital cities, such as Melbourne and Sydney, was market driver.

The steady supply also kept the land affordable, relative to the big cities.

Mr Schneider said apartment projects – another major driver of the real estate market – were approved under more efficient regulatory settings, ensuring the market remained in equilibrium.

The challenges for that market were around financing, particularly of large-scale projects.

REIQ director John Newlands said the biggest hurdle facing developers was a lack of infrastructure.

“It won’t be a supply and demand issue as the demand will always be there,” he said.

“It will be in the planning stages and whether the infrastructure an important is ready to go – the roads, sewerage, power stations and those sorts of things.

“There is lots of land at Coomera but the infrastructure is quite a few years behind.”

He said land in the central part of the city including Worongary would be the most sought after.

“There will be price points that some can afford and some blocks of land buyers will be paying a premium, especially if they want to live close to the central Coast,” he said

Ray White special projects associate director Dax Roep said house-and-land package developers were “drip-feeding” product to the market to ensure they have supply for the next few years. “I think there will be more of that in the next 10 to 20 years,” Mr Roep said.