Whitehorse Rd deal smashes land value record

A prominent local developer with off-shore links looks certain to embark on a landmark apartment development at Box Hill following the $18.18 million purchase of a prominent Whitehorse Road site.

Savills Australia Director, Nick Peden, who brokered the 820 Whitehorse Road deal with Jesse Radisichand Clinton Baxter, said the land value price of $10,558 a square metre had smashed the previous price benchmark of circa $,8200 a square metre set only weeks earlier with the sale of a Station Street property.

The 1,722 square metre site is situated two doors down from the Deague family's Asian Pacific Group's $330 million, 511 apartment, Whitehorse Towers development at 850 Whitehorse Road which reportedly sold out less than a month after permit approval in March. The Deagues bought the site in October last year for $14.135 million.

'This was a great result for the vendor with little doubt that previous transactions and development approvals in the Box Hill precinct had an impact on the value the market put on the property.

'We received more than 150 enquiries and received 17 individual Expressions of Interest from a range of local and off-shore developers for a what was a prime development opportunity in a hot market,' Mr Peden said.

Mr Baxter said the corner site, currently home to an 1,835 square metre office building, was located in what was regarded as a major development precinct.

'This precinct's development credentials are now well established - in direct proximity to Box Hill Central and railway station, Box Hill Institute, the hospital precinct and gardens - and so the response to the marketing campaign and the result were not a total surprise.

'With apartment projects selling extraordinarily well including some selling out off-the-plan within days or weeks of release, it represented a must-consider opportunity for developers,' Mr Baxter said.

The site sits within Box Hill's Prospect Street Activity Precinct and the Major Development Built Form Precinct as does the Deague's 36 and 26 level towers project.

Mr Radisich said Melbourne's population had shown a growing desire for apartment living and that, along with a rise in student numbers, had been reflected in the number of multi-unit residential projects approved in and around the Melbourne CBD.

'That trend is also making its mark in the suburbs particularly around landmark retail destinations like Box Hill Central where access to shopping and other essential amenity is virtually immediate.

'With the enormous cost of providing infrastructure, governments are encouraging higher density residential growth and that is now coinciding with a residential boom driven by population growth - Victoria now the leading state according to ABS stats released this week - and also by an ageing population looking to downsize and locate close to everything,' Mr Radisich said.

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