Developer Splashes Record $19m on NSW North Coast Site

A New South Wales North Coast development site up the highway from Byron Bay—Australia’s most expensive property market—has been snapped up by a Brisbane-based developer for a record price. 

The vacant 7354sq m parcel of sand at Casuarina Beach has changed hands for $19.088 million in a new benchmark land deal in the prime beachfront enclave. 

It has been acquired by Azure Development Group, which recently sold a penthouse off-the-plan in an inner-city Brisbane riverfront boutique apartment development for a record $11 million. 

The Casuarina deal is another windfall for fund manager Clarence Property Group, which paid circa $7 million for the 21ha balance of the land in the masterplanned community in 2012. 

Azure Development Group has earmarked the site at 6 Grand Parade for a new four-level residential development comprising at least 72 apartments. 

Settlement of the land deal is expected this month.

▲ An artist's impression of the penthouse in Azure Development Group's One-Five-Six apartment project at New Farm that sold off-the-plan for $11 million.

It is Azure’s first foray into Casuarina Beach, a beachfront estate on the Tweed Coast created by another Brisbane developer, Consolidated Properties. 

The acquisition is the latest addition to Azure’s workbook, which includes such projects as its riverfront One-Five-Six apartment development in New Farm and a collection of 54 terraces at Helensvale. 

“It is the right time to enter the Casuarina Beach market given the strong fundamentals underpinning the community, including infrastructure and population growth,” Azure director Chris Schroor said. 

“We’re planning an upmarket boutique residential community for 6 Grand Parade that will emulate our other successful projects and provide a highly desirable lifestyle for buyers. 

“Casuarina Beach is coming into its own and we are very excited to be bringing an exciting new luxury development to the area.” 

Several other developers from Brisbane and Sydney are circling two nearby Casuarina blocks—both spanning 1545sq m—at 9 and 10 Grand Parade with preliminary approval for three-storey mixed-use developments.

▲ Developer demand is surging on the New South Wales north coast with strong levels of inquiry being fielded for two newly-listed development sites at Casuarina Beach.

CBRE Gold Coast managing director Mark Witheriff, who is marketing the two sites with colleague Sebastian Fahey together with Colliers’ Brendan Hogan and Steven King, said developer and buyer demand was surging on the NSW north coast. 

“The mid coast area of the Tweed Shire, including Casuarina, is expected to grow by 200 per cent in the next two decades,” he said. 

“More and more buyers in the post-Covid era are identifying northern New South Wales as somewhere they want to live. 

“Azure Development Group has rightly recognised Casuarina Beach as a key growth area, and we expect more developers to follow suit especially as development opportunities dwindle.” 

Hogan said developers were looking to capitalise on buyers from Sydney and Melbourne seeking a regional lifestyle while still being close to amenities and infrastructure such as airports and shopping centres. 

“The growth in house and apartment prices in Casuarina—up 52 per cent and 24 per cent, respectively, in the year to January 2022—is evidence of this surging demand,” he said.

Since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, the median house price in the nearby popular NSW north coast town of Byron Bay has skyrocketed, leap-frogging Sydney—Australia’s longstanding most expensive housing market.

Latest data from the REA Group shows the median house price in Byron—now a haven for the wealthy and Hollywood A-listers— sits at $3.025 million, well above Sydney at $2.58 million.