Savvy Investors Eye Stunning Profit on Byron Land Sale

Three savvy property investors are looking at a spectacular profit margin 20 years after securing 11.5ha of bushland, on the outskirts of Australia’s most famous beach town.

Global real estate consultancy Knight Frank says the largely vacant land in Melaleuca Drive, 3.5km from the centre of Byron Bay and its world-class beach, will fetch $25 million to $30 million in an expressions-of-interest campaign launched this month.

The three investors—two from Sydney and one from Tweed Heads—paid $130,000 for the 11.46ha known as Lot Two, Melaleuca Drive on May 7, 2004, according to CoreLogic’s online monitor.

And that would give the three owners a profit margin of up to 22,976.9 per cent. Or about 230 times what they paid for it.

“Yes, they had some great foresight,” said Knight Frank’s head of investment sales and capital markets in Queensland, Blake Goddard.

“And I think anything in Byron Bay that comes up, of scale, like this that offers a buyer the opportunity for an approved scheme is certainly highly sought-after given the location,” Goddard told The Urban Developer.

The vacant property—about half of which is given over to an environmental reservation—has development approval for 37 residential lots and about 14,000sq m of industrial gross floor area (GFA). There is a 200m frontage to Melaleuca Drive.

“And that’s what I expect, given the buyer interest we have had, will be the outcome,” Goddard said. “A mix of residential and light industrial.”

That unusual zoning mix—Light Industrial (IN2) and Low Density Residential (R2)—came about when a handful of neighbouring owners in the West Byron area got together to change the rural zoning to something more conducive to development.

Byron Shire Council objected but the zoning change was court-ordered in 2022.

▲ Brokers say the 11.46ha parcel in one of Australia’s best-known beach destinations will be highly sought-after.

It’s the second time in less than two years the Melaleuca Drive property has been on the market.

Last year Knight Frank marketed an amalgamated land parcel of about 50ha, which included the 11.5 ha on Melaleuca Drive.

“We did have due dilligence,” said Goddard, “but unfortunately it fell through due to capital availability, which is pretty common and was certainly common last year.”

The L-shaped property is opposite the new masterplanned community, Harvest Estate, a 60ha residential subdivision by wealthy Sydney property developer Terry Agnew. When that development finally moved ahead in 2021, it became the first new home and land estate at Byron Bay in 30 years.

The Byron Bay Arts and Industrial Estate—which houses the Stone and Wood Brewery—is on the other side of Ewingsdale Road.

Goddard said there had been about 60 inquiries since the sales campaign opened two weeks ago. Most were developers from Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

“I consider that a lot for something of this scale,” he said.

“Byron is a tourism mecca, and it’s a highly desirable place to live, and there is always an issue in these sorts of tourist hubs of housing availability…it’s an ongoing issue around the country and it’s certainly an issue for Byron Bay.

“So, having a part solution for that issue at the moment for any developer I think is a huge benefit to buying a parcel of land like this.”

The expressions-of-interest campaign closes on February 29.