[+] Triumph over Roadblocks in 17-Year Struggle for Lilywood

It is a greenfield development 17 years in the making—and Ian Worthington would do it all over again and again. The Lennium Group development manager is preparing to release one of the first residential communities at Caboolture West in a suburb called Lilywood, part of the newly formed city of Waraba. Lilywood Landings was approved in August last year for 705 lots alongside 70ha of greenspace, pathways along the Caboolture River, and a new state primary school, town centre and sports fields. AVID Property Group, Baycrown Property Group and Orchard Property Group are also working in the area. The greater Waraba area covers 3156ha and 30,000 homes will be developed there across the next 40 years. The journey so far has been trying, not to mention and expensive—and much could be done to make it smoother for developers pioneering new ground in the future, according to Worthington. “Infrastructure has been the biggest hurdle—for masterplanning large projects you’re talking to state government, different authorities such as main roads, the water authorities and council,” Worthington says. ▲ The site takes shape in this image taken on March 2 of this year. Image: Nearmap “At any particular time one of them is a basket case. “Just getting water across the main road is a nightmare, or has been in different areas. “Once you get deep into the bowels of these different departments, the change or political will doesn’t follow through to that area.” While Worthington says there needs to be a way to resolve conflicts between planning acts and departments, this will not dissuade the group from similar greenfield projects in the future, with a pipeline of 2500 lots across Queensland in hand. “We are doing it again, it’s just the nature of it now. There’d be things we’d do possibly differently—whether the outcome would be any different I don’t know,” Worthington says. “It’s been incredibly long, incredibly frustrating. I couldn’t tell you how much money we’ve spent to get to that point. “It’s complex with the infrastructure requirements, we can’t deliver our projects without significant infrastructure.” ▲ There are thing they would do differently if they had their time on the development again, Worthington says. The Moreton Bay region has a reputation as one of the easier councils to work with and is making great inroads in providing future homes, particularly in the greenfield space. The region has 17 per cent of total lot registrations for south-east Queensland for new homes, up from 12 per cent in 2017. This compares to Brisbane, which made up 38 per cent in 2017 and is now down to 23 per cent, according to RPM data. RPM managing director Clinton Trezise says south-east Queensland hit peak supply in 2017 and is now under the 10-year average as population growth and supply pushes prices and demand. “Land pricing is outperforming house pricing at the moment. In terms of growth it was just over 13 per cent or $359,000 in the last year,” Trezise says. “It wasn’t that long ago you could drive 40 minutes out of Brisbane and still find land around $250,000. That same land ... you’d be struggling to find under $400,000. “Land still does present good value. Land in the region could be undervalued by $17,500—conversely when you look at markets like Melbourne, the same metrics probably point to Melbourne being 60 per cent overvalued.” ▲ Clinton Trezise of RPM, Jonathon Lawson of PEET, Ian Worthington of Lennium Group and Adam Di Marco of T he Urban Developer at the Brisbane Residential Developer Summit this month. However, as discussed at The Urban Developer Brisbane Residential Developer Summit this month, construction costs in the region are more expensive than the southern states. Worthington says all that is needed now for developers in the area is good weather so they can have titles ready by the end of the year. “We’ve got a pretty good demand and enquiry at the moment but six months is a long time,” Worthington said. “What we are hoping is that by the end of the year, the market is still the same, which we think it will be, therefore we are expecting to settle around 150 lots next year. “We’ve got 200 under construction at the moment and that includes a 30-lot display village.” You are currently experiencing The Urban Developer Plus (TUD+), our premium membership for property professionals. Click here to learn more.

[+] Triumph over Roadblocks in 17-Year Struggle for Lilywood

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