Developers Target Top End as Megaprojects Move Forward

Developers in the Top End up are upping the luxe as Darwin overtakes the other capitals with the biggest property price growth for the year.

Darwin home values are at a record high after prices rose 15.4 per cent across the year, according to Cotality data released this month.

The interest is being driven by two megaprojects making major progress in the Northern Territory while investors take advantage of the lowest deposits and highest returns in Australia. 

Tamboran Resources completed drilling for its Beetaloo Basin shale gas project in October. It will create 1000 times more gas than the country’s annual consumption, while SunCable reached a 70-year agreement with traditional owners this month to build the biggest solar farm in the country—a 12,000ha asset in the Barkly region for the Australia-Asia PowerLink.

Meanwhile, Mark Coffey was appointed as the new chairperson for the Northern Territory Planning Commission in late September.

▲ Tamboran Resources’ Beetaloo Basin generators are being readied for production. 

Coffey replaces David Ritchie, who headed the commission for eight years and who told The Urban Developer in June about the NT being on the “threshold” of a boom as well as plans for a new city.

All of these advances are giving developers confidence to move ahead. Projects in the pipeline include plans for 26 high-end homes in the gulf-side suburb of Coconut Grove, near Nightcliff. 

The proposal is for the front section of a 2860sq m site at 140 Dick Ward Drive and would replace 14 one-bedroom apartments.

▲ A rendering of the apartment addition to 140 Dick Ward Drive, Coconut Grove.

The Savvas Architect-designed scheme comprises two new buildings of 14 three-bedroom and 12 two-bedroom apartments along with carparking, and replaces a previous application that lapsed in October. 

The application now before the Northern Territory Government is on exhibition until November 28. 

▲ Renderings of industrial warehouses proposed for Berrimah.

Meanwhile, industrial applications are popping up between Darwin and Palmerston as activity builds.

That includes plans for a 1216sq m warehouse with a 156sq m mezzanine level for office space, 3010sq m of external hardstand and 32 parking spaces by Concept Designs NT architects. 

The 5620sq m site at 10 Castillon Road, Berrimah, is within the Berrimah Industrial Estate and next to the Darwin Corporate Park.