Troubled developer sheds balance of housing estate site
Risland Australia, the local arm of beleaguered Chinese developer, Country Garden, has sold the balance of a south west Sydney housing estate site.
The 40 hectare parcel at Wilton, 80 kilometres from town, curried favour with a local outfit.
Permit-ready for 362 lots, it collected c$100m.
It formed part of a 432ha parcel Risland bought from Walker Corp in 2019 then master-planned for a 3600-lot housing estate, Wilton Greens, with an end value of c$2 billion.
The group launched the first stage – with 105 lots – in 2020, and estate infrastructure, like roads, shortly before a liquidity crisis affecting its offshore owner became public.
In early 2024, Risland sold the bulk of the housing estate – 330ha – to another Chinese group, Avantaus, previously known here as Sunglow Australia, for a speculated c$240m, and announced plans to quit the country.
Coincidentally that buyer also suffered financial woes – entering receivership two months ago (continues below).
Growth corridor
Wilton forms part of the Macarthur municipality, expected to accommodate 40,000 people and an employment zone with c15,000 jobs.
“This transaction demonstrates just how intensely contested major DA-approved sites have become,” Colliers’ Joseph Lin, who brokered the latest deal with Joe Sacco, said.
“With large scale opportunities of this nature increasingly scarce, and as with smaller development parcels, continuing to fragment, groups are targeting land that can feed their future housing pipelines,” according to the executive.
“The landholding benefits from strategic proximity to the Hume Motorway, Picton Road, Campbelltown, Wollongong and the Western Sydney Aerotropolis,” he added.
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