South Yarra development site adjacent to train station sells for $5.1 million
A Melbourne investor has paid $5.1 million for a South Yarra building block opposite the high-density Forrest Hill precinct.
The 12 Darling Street property was marketed by Knight Frank’s associate director Stephen Kelly and colleague James Thorpe as a development play.
Adjacent to the suburb’s train station, the 668 square metre holding contains a low-rise building with four flats and garaging.
Zoned General Residential, the plot has the potential to be replaced with something taller and more dense.
Several apartment complexes in Forrest Hill rise more than 30-storeys. The suburb’s tallest building, under construction at the corner of Toorak Road and Chapel Street, will soar 58 levels.
The deal comes months after Knight Frank sold another developer a site at 6 and 6A Darling Street for $4.95 million.
In 2015, the street gained nationwide attention when an apartment complex at number 27 was converted into luxury townhouses as part of the 14th season of hit TV show The Block.
In recent years – to cope with issues including housing affordability – council and government planners have been seeking to make more efficient use of land near transport nodes.
Mr Kelly said that as such, rows like Darling Street, which is about 3.5 kilometres from the CBD, and part of which backs onto the train line, are forecast to accommodate high density development in the longer term.
Last week we reported that local developer Bill McNee had acquired the suburb’s Jam Factory car park for $12.6 million following an off-market deal.
Mr McNee’s Vicland Property Group is also proposing to replace airspace atop rail lines opposite the South Yarra train station with an office and park (artist’s impression, right).
Newmark Capital recently won approval to build four towers, the tallest rising 15 storeys, on the edge of its Jam Factory site fronting Chapel Street.
Late last month we reported that a developer paid $5.2 million – some $1 million over the reserve – for a low-rise block of flats on a 554 sqm Commercial 1 zoned plot of land at 1 and 1A Mathoura Road, Toorak – not far from 12 Darling Street.
