This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
DEVELOPERS will finally get their chance to acquire the last remaining undeveloped private land in Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast, after 35 hectares of farmland was put up for market.
Maroochydore has emerged as the CBD of the Sunshine Coast, which according to research by Directive Collective will need one new suburb every year for the next two decades to keep up with population growth.
The owner of the farmland, 81-year-old farmer Peter Wise, is an eighth-generation farmer and his family has been farming in the region since 1901.
His British-born grandfather Frederick bought the Palmyra property on Buderim for £800, while Wise and his brother David bought an adjoining 121 hectares of farmland in between 1965 and 1968. Over the years, land he has owned that was once used as orchards have been replaced by Harvey Norman-anchored large format retail centre, the Sunshine Cove canal estate, Sunshine Motorway and Maroochy Boulevard.
According to the ABC, Wise will not be appointed real estate agents to market the property. He will be accepting expressions of interest from suitors.
“The sale of Wises Farm will be conducted under my version of a tender system where, at the end, a potential purchaser’s cash offer is to include their best vision to redevelop the unique site,” he told the ABC.
“Both price and development vision by a potential purchaser will be considered equally in the sale process.”
Wise had updated and resubmitted a development plan that approved in 2012 for residential housing, commercial space, community use and open space and environmental management areas, but had since lapsed. The new plans lodged with Sunshine Coast Regional Council include medium and low-density residential housing – between 500 and 700 homes could be built on the land – and a mixed-use precinct, a local centre and environmental management precinct, and potentially a service station.
Wise still owns the Palmyra homestead on Buderim and will retain four hectares of his Maroochydore landholding.
The Queensland government’s Land Supply and Development Monitoring report showed there is 14 years of consolidation area supply left on the Sunshine Coast, and 17 years of expansion area supply.
