Stockland pays $105 million for Donnybrook farm
ASX-listed Stockland is paying $105 million for a major residential development play 32 kilometres north of the Melbourne CBD.
The 89.5 hectare property, 975 Donnybrook Road, Donnybrook, was marketed as “the best Precinct Structure Plan (PSP) approved site” that direction of the city.
Stockland intends to build a community with a school, recreation areas and about 1500 homes.
Currently a farm, it has been held by one family for 35 years.
Stockland Communities chief executive officer Andrew Whitson said the 975 Donnybrook Road acquisition strengthens its capacity to deliver affordable new homes in desirable locations.
“We will leverage our considerable community creation experience in this corridor to deliver a walkable, liveable and affordable community at Donnybrook Road over the coming years,” the executive said.
The block was listed this quarter by Biggin & Scott Land’s Andrew Egan and RPM’s Christian Ranieri.
Donnybrook still a one-road town
Donnybrook sits between Kalkallo and Woodstock.
One east-west thoroughfare – Donnybrook Road – connects them.
The suburb also has a train station however Melbourne’s metropolitan rail network stops one depot short (at Craigieburn).
Next door to Stockland’s latest site, Mirvac is marketing a housing estate called Olivine, set to contain schools, sporting ovals and another train station.
Dennis Family Homes owns two parcels off the street – one, called Peppercorn Hill, acquired after a court fight, a couple of hundred metres west along Donnybrook Road to Stockland’s parcel.
Blueways, Ouson and Satterley also control plots in the area.
Platform at 805 Donnybrook Road is the closest housing estate to the existing train station. It is also opposite land earmarked for commercial development.
Kallo, gazetted in Kalkallo, is also off Donnybrook Road near rail.
Stockland in Melbourne’s north
The deal for 975 Donnybrook Road comes nine years after Stockland paid two sisters $300 million for the 1121 hectare Lockerbie sheep station in Kalkallo, about five kilometres north of Donnybrook.
Lockerbie is making way for Cloverton, Melbourne’s largest master-planned community, set to contain 11,000 dwellings.
The leafy Highlands estate in Craigieburn – 10 kilometres south of Donnybrook – is also a Stockland project.
