Woolworths pounce on 1.8ha Development Site in Sydney’s Fastest Growing Region

Woolworths have acquired a 1.8ha site in Austral to develop a new supermarket to service the growing region paying twice the rate for land than Coles who jumped in to the region in May.

Woolworths development arm, Fabcot, paid $23m for the site ($1,266/sqm) following an on market process by Moxham Commercial, with settlement completed in early November.

The vendor, a local developer, paid just $8.8m for the same property just 12 months earlier.

The site, at 260 Eighth Ave, is zoned B1 Neighbourhood Centre with a potential GFA of 23,792 sqm and a height limit of 17m and suitable for a range of retail uses.

Earlier this year, Coles acquired a larger 2.4ha site at 130 Fifth Ave, Austral for $14m ($577/sqm), however that land is zoned B5 Business Development upon which retailing of food clothing and convenience retail is intended be limited. It will be interesting to see how Coles develop a supermarket on the site and whether it will be more akin to a “local distribution centre”, with limited in-store facilities or whether Council will agree to a full scale Supermarket on the site.

Both sites are just north of the Leppington Railway Station with Coles approximately 500m north and Woolworths 2.7km north, both servicing one of Sydney’s faster growing regions.

In 2022, we’ve recorded over $260m of Developer land acquisitions in Austral covering some 63ha of land. Some of the key developers include Vantage Property (Austral Estate), the Bathla Group, and Anvest. Developers are typically paying an average rate of $434/sqm for unserviced but zoned residential land and after servicing and construction of roads etc, are retailing completed lots for around $1,220/sqm or about $400,000 per 330sqm block.