Privately held Queensland construction giant QM Properties is battling chaotic weather, cost increases and changes to local government planning controls as it closes in on two more stages of a $150-million master-planned estate north of Brisbane.
QM wants to complete another 59 lots—part of stages 23 and 24 of its 160-ha development in Caboolture—by March next year.
But wet weather continues to threaten ongoing work on the infrastructure project, which includes all roads, drainage, sewerage, water recirculation and earthworks.
“It’s been very, very difficult,” QM’s senior development manager Scott Willis said. “Some projects are behind by eight or nine months.”
The delays through wet weather have been further exacerbated by ongoing changes in local government planning controls.
Willis said since work had begun on the Central Springs Estate masterplan in 2016, there has been three amendments to flood level controls.
“Basically, what that does is to throw out all your earthworks’ quantities, which is a major cost,” Willis said.
“So you actually have to raise all the lots to meet the new, what they call, flood-freeboard levels.”
QM has already completed the first 688 housing lots of the proposed 1000-lot development, virtually all of which have been sold. That’s due to the region’s housing boom of the past two years and in part, to the global pandemic.
Willis says at the height of the boom QM was selling 30 properties a month, much of that to interstate buyers.
“No one could go anywhere. Basically, the Melbourne lockdowns were becoming a little bit too onerous,” he said.
“People were looking for another way out, and also cashing in on their properties down south. They get a lot more bang for their buck up here.”
That success has caused further delays.
QM says it’s physically run out of operational works’ approvals and is waiting for Moreton Bay Regional Council’s approval to proceed further. Those applications can take up to three months.
Supply chain delays have added to the developer’s woes.
Willis said when the country’s three major suppliers of concrete storm water pipes suddenly became two during the boom, it left a hole in supply.
“Last month, I think there was a 40-week lead time for big storm water pipes.”
It’s not the first time infrastructure developers have reported the problem.
Earlier this month another Queenslander involved in civil construction, KDL Property Group, reported wait times of between 40 and 50 weeks for concrete pipes over 650mm in diameter.
Central Springs is the fourth estate to be developed by QM Properties in Cabooulture.
