Largest Balmain site to hit the market in over a decade

21 July 2022

One of the most anticipated Inner West campaigns has hit the market, being 189 Darling Street & 7 Waterview Street, Balmain. To be sold via Expressions of Interest, Colliers agents James Cowan and Steam Leung are handling the process.

“Balmain has long been overlooked by the investment and development market due to perceived council pressures and the lack of its appeal on a global level. However, with Westconnex, the White Bay Power Station upgrades, Bays Precinct Upgrades and highly publicised Balmain Leagues Club proceeding to construction, we are seeing a serious shift in buyer appetite.” Says James Cowan, Director at Colliers.

Benefitting from triple street frontages, the land has a 43 metre frontage to Darling Street and 39 metre frontage to Waterview Street at the rear. It encompasses more than 2,350m2 of land area.

The property is one of the largest land holdings the peninsular has to offer, and is the largest private holding brought to the market in recent memory. Putting this in perspective it is two and a half times the land size of largest property sold in Balmain/Rozelle peninsula in 2022 (being 73-75 Beattie Street for $12.35m by Colliers), and three times the size of the largest sold in 2021 (being the Reece Plumbing building for $12m).

In its current configuration it offers 29 residential apartments, 5 retail shops and an open air parking area.

Indicative feasibility analysis suggests that the property holds underlying development potential for residential apartments, duplex, townhouse, dwelling or a mixture of all these uses (STCA).

“This site, along with recent Colliers campaigns at 17-37 Wollongong Road Arncliffe (sold $31m), Doctors on Darling Balmain (EOI closing with numerous offers north of $10m) and one in due diligence in Five Dock which was guided at $350m, supports the theory of bulk and scale in a market fundamentally undersupplied of residential accommodation. In each of these campaigns we received an average of 9 offers equating to more than $3.5bn of unplaced and aggressive capital” continued James Cowan.

The property is expected to garner significant interest given the large buyer pool attracted to such an asset. This includes but is not limited to general investors, renovators and residential developers looking to take advantage of the existing residential zoning and apartment buyer appetite for sympathetic residential developments.

As a guide to price expectations, the agents referenced recent benchmark Colliers sales at 20 Gladstone Street Balmain ($6,440,000 reflecting $10,337/m2 of land), 73-75 Beattie Street, Balmain ($12,350,000 reflecting

$10,337/m2 of land) and 431 Glebe Point Road, Glebe ($39,000,000 reflecting $16,847/m2 of land). This equates to a guide price well into the $20mils.

The expressions of interest closes late August 2022.