Land LeaseClare BurnettWed 23 Sep 26
Court Clears Allam’s Tuncurry Land Lease Scheme After Council Said No
A 273-home land lease scheme on the NSW Mid-Coast has been cleared to proceed after a court agreed with the developer’s rejection of a council refusal.
The NSW Land and Environment Court has approved Allam Property Group’s plans for Tuncurry after the developer appealed the MidCoast Council’s refusal.
Allam filed plans for the project, halfway between Port Macquarie and Newcastle, in January of 2025.
The developer proposed a manufactured home community with a clubhouse, bowling green, pickleball court and swimming pool.
The plans for 40–80 Chapmans Road also included roads, car parks and a drainage network.
The MidCoast Council refused the project, prompting Allam to file an appeal with the NSW Land and Environment Court.
Before the LEC hearing, a conciliation conference was held, and Allam and the council reaching an agreement over the project.
The court found the development was permissible on the site and that a manufactured home community was “compatible” with the rural landscape character of the area.
It also found the proposed development would take sufficient measures to protect, “and where possible, enhance” the ecological integrity of the adjacent coastal wetland.
The court agreed with the council that, following the conciliation conference, all issues around the project’s social, environmental and economic impacts on the locality, as well as site suitability, had been addressed.
The NSW Land and Environment Court upheld Allam’s appeal, saying it would also have approved the Tuncurry project.
Allam was founded in 1991 by the late Barney Allam OAM, initially as a contract housing builder before moving into residential estates across the NSW Central Coast, Hunter Valley and South Coast.
The Tuncurry project is its second in the evolving land lease sector, which has expanded rapidly in recent years, with CBRE estimating more than 51,000 operating sites nationally and a further 30,000 to 35,000 in development.
At The Urban Developer’s Retirement and Aged Care Summit this month, Colliers director of advisory services for healthcare and retirement living Bruce Message forecast the sector would overtake other retirement living segments within the next five years.
A report by Colliers and the UDIA NSW earlier this year said land lease communities can be delivered up to 50 per cent faster than traditional housing models and would be key to delivering more housing in the retirement sector.
