Australia needs to develop more cities to reduce the pressures on existing metropolises and their residents.
With thousands of cities on the planet, Australia has three cities ranked as ‘least affordable’ housing markets in the Top 15 in the world – Sydney at 2, Melbourne at 9 and Adelaide at 14.
New cities could help provide their residents with more affordable housing, reduced commuting times and improved quality of life, suggests BC Land.
“Rather than pushing for affordable housing in our existing cities, we should also be looking at developing whole new cities,” suggests Nils Miller, CEO of BC Land.
Mr Miller noted that each new city needed to be centred around a specialist offering. “For example, the development of Western Sydney International Airport is attracting a range of businesses that will create an employment hub that will in turn lead to residential developments nearby.
“The businesses being developed around the new airport started out being centred around aviation focused, but was now attracting a wider set of support businesses a little further out from the centre of the hub, businesses that employer a range or people and support them and their families who in turn will require accommodation a little further afield.”
“Bradfield, in the Badgerys Creek precinct, is a classic example of what can be done in other States when organisations and people come together,” Mr Miller said.
Other cities could be developed around the country that focus on producing and value-added processing of rural produce, such as processing grain and meat into value-added products. For example, the processing of minerals could lead to other news cities and was leading to the growth of existing ones, such as Gladstone and Townsville in Queensland, he said.
Western Sydney International Airport will be the largest logistics airport in Australia and the first in New South Wales with no curfew, with flights taking off and landing 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has already issued Western Sydney International Airport its three-letter code ‘WSI’. It will cater to more than 25,000 domestic flights carrying four million passengers a year and flights are expected to operate as soon as the airport opens in 2026.
Bradfield City Centre will be located within the Western Sydney Aerotropolis. It will be built on Government land near Badgerys Creek Road, Bringelly, on the doorstep of the of the new Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport. According to the NSW Government, Bradfield City Centre will be a cyber-secure, advanced, green and connected hub for advanced industries.
“It is this value-adding that can see new cities beyond what has traditionally developed in regional and rural Australia – along with people wanting lower property prices and to live 30 minutes or less from their place of employment.”
We believe Badgerys Creek can be the start of what will be a future of this happening in Australia as the population keeps growing and the cities becoming too congested.
BC Land is developing an employment hub on 35 hectares at Badgerys Creek, near the Western Sydney (Nancy-Bird Walton) International Airport and associated aerotropolis and nearby Bradfield city.
“Work is progressing well with the airport,” said Mr Miller. As at June 2023, more than 50 per cent of the airport was already built, with foundations poured for the 3.7 kilometre runway and work on the terminal and carpark had started.
Some 25 million cubic metres of earth had been moved around the site – making it Australia’s biggest earthmoving project. Tunnel boring machines were also in the ground working on the metro line, which will run from St Mary’s to the new airport.
Mr Miller noted that the new airport would attract the usual aviation supporting business of car parks, car hire, aviation services and others such as food and supplies for travellers.
“Developments surrounding the airport are now gathering pace, with other businesses assessing what is available and where they should locate.”
“Our own 35-hectare site on Lawson Road and Pitt Street, one of the two access roads to the airport and one of the closest sites to the aerotropolis, is already receiving expressions of interest from partners and tenants. The site will be connected to the M7 motorway via the M12 which is in planning.
“We already have interest from providers of freight services and logistics along with light manufacturers seeking to service these as well as other aviation services, since Qantas committed to passenger numbers and a fleet based at the airport enquiries from occupiers have spiked.”
“These businesses are realising that they can occupy premises for less than half the price they are up for at Mascot airport,” added Mr Miller. BC Land will go to market in early 2024 with a campaign for tenants.
He forecast these business developments would soon be followed by residential developments, as people increasingly seek to be no more than 30 minutes from their place of work.
Western Sydney International Airport will be the largest logistics airport in Australia and the first in New South Wales with no curfew, with flights taking off and landing 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has already issued Western Sydney International Airport its three-letter code ‘WSI’. It will cater to more than 25,000 domestic flights carrying four million passengers a year and flights are expected to operate as soon as the airport opens in 2026.
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