This is Satterley’s first foray into Victoria. Its portfolio includes residential estates in Queensland and Western Australia. Satterley is Australia’s third-largest land bank, holding about 40,000 residential land lots.

Founder and managing director Nigel Satterley told Capital Gain the company had wanted to enter the Melbourne market for more than a year.

He signalled the purchase would not be Satterley’s last in Victoria, saying he expected the group to spend between $300 million and $400 million on sites in the next year.

Lemon Baxter director Paul O’Sullivan said the Doreen site attracted more than 80 inquiries, with eight parties lodging formal offers after an expressions of interest campaign.

He said the strength of the development-site market was very strong despite concerns over rising interest rates, and cited surging population numbers as giving developers the confidence to invest.

Sources say Delfin Lend Lease may find out by the end of this year whether its $4.5 billion Lockerbie development in Kalkallo, north of Whittlesea, will be approved.

Lockerbie would turn farmland next to the Hume Highway into a green community accommodating up to 35,000 people, but it is just outside the urban growth boundary that is being revised.