Consolidated Reveals Next Riverfront Play in $64m Deal

Mirvac has sold off what has been called the last waterfront development site in Brisbane’s blue-chip Newstead for $64.5 million.

Consolidated Properties Group has snapped up the site in an off-market deal for the 9368sq m site with 47m of river frontage at 47 Skyring Terrace, 1.5km from the Brisbane CBD.

Consolidated Properties chief executive Don O’Rorke said the group planned to build luxury apartments and riverfront villas at the site.

The company can build up to 42,000sq m across 25 storeys under current planning rules.

“Sites like this are as rare as it gets,” O’Rorke said. “We thought our Monarch project might be a one-off but at Newstead we’ve been able to create another iconic address right on the Brisbane River.”

Consolidated Properties Group head of residential James MacGinley said the developer had been working with Woods Bagot on concept designs during the early due diligence phase.

He said he expected plans would be filed with the Brisbane City Council in September 2025, while kick-off meetings had begun with long-time collaborators Hutchinson Builders. 

▲ Aerial view of the undeveloped site at Newstead.

The project would include two and three-bedroom apartments, targeting the affluent downsizer market, MacGinley told The Urban Developer. 

“It is the best site in Brisbane,” he said.

“It is a consistent theme for us across Monarch, Yeerongpilly and Newstead, focused on wealthy downsizers and locations with views that can never be built out.

“It is the only recipe that works in the next five to 10 years.”

The site neighbours a power tower, which connects across the river to Bulimba. MacGinley said that although it had “made other people pause on the site”, the developer was confident it had a solution. 

“As we have gone through the concept design with Woods Bagot the focus has been to design a building where none of the apartments will see the power line. It was surprisingly easy,” he said. 

The apartments will face almost due north towards Hamilton Hill and overlook the Brisbane River. MacGinley said they had also been working with Hutchies to develop a concept that was “buildable”.

“We try to buy sites that can be developed through almost every cycle,” he said.

▲ Consolidated Properties chief executive Don O’Rorke and a rendering of a proposal for the site by previous owners Mirvac.

Colliers agents Brendan Hogan and Troy Linnane handled the sale. Hogan said premium riverfront apartments were now selling for more than $35,000 a square metre.

“The price surge is being driven by owner-occupiers who want premium and larger apartments,” Hogan said.

“Opportunities like this simply don’t come up anymore. This is the last of its kind on the Newstead waterfront.”

The sale comes as Brisbane continues to grapple with a housing shortage. The city is growing faster than Sydney and Melbourne, and more than 500,000 new residents are expected over the next decade.

Inner Brisbane alone needs 14,000 more apartments in the next four years, according to SQM Research.

Kokoda Property has early site works under way on its $1.5-billion Tides of Teneriffe project at 17-27 Skyring Terrace, which will have five towers up to 18 storeys of 213 apartments and 163 hotel rooms, plus commercial and public spaces.

Consolidated Properties, which has delivered more than 200 projects across Australia’s east coast in its 45-year history, said the Newstead development would be a signature building for Brisbane.

“This will be something elevated in every sense, something truly special,” O’Rorke said.