Towering ambition for $50m Box Hill site
Another towering residential development is a step closer in Melbourne boom suburb Box Hill, with a developer paying almost $50 million for a site with permits in place.
Local developer CBD Development Group trumped overseas buyers to secure the site at 851 Whitehorse Rd, which has permits for three residential towers up to 37 storeys high, with 517 apartments and a 150-room hotel.
At 37 storeys, the building could potentially become Box Hill’s tallest.
The tallest building outside Melbourne’s CBD – the nearby and soon-to-be-completed Whitehorse Towers – has already topped out at 36 storeys.
Commercial Insights: Subscribe to receive the latest news and updates
The latest news continues a period of remarkable transformation and growth for Box Hill, which has been referred to by the Victorian Government as Melbourne’s “second CBD”.
Demographic forecasters .id predict Box Hill’s population will swell by almost 80% over the next 20 years, from 12,788 to 22,850, as residential developers – particularly from China – take advantage of generous planning regulations in the precinct.
The site has permits for a 37-storey development with three towers and a hotel.
The sale also comes 12 months after a Chinese developer bought the not-for-profit Navy Health and Scope offices at 826-830 Whitehorse Rd for $30.8 million, adding another significant residential development project along Whitehorse Rd.
Colliers Internatonal’s Trent Hobart, Bryson Cameron, Hamish Burgess and Jun Lai managed the international expressions of interest campaign for the 851 Whitehorse Rd site, with Cameron saying interest in Melbourne’s development market shows no signs of waning.
“This deal reaffirms the underlying confidence in the suburban apartment market from the Asian origin developer community in Melbourne,” he says.
“The campaign was highly competitive and the vendor received multiple offers from mainland China, Hong Kong, Sydney and Melbourne developers, ultimately selling to the locally-based CBD Development group.”
Burgess says the more relaxed development regulations in some of Melbourne’s suburbs will continue to drive growth.
“With the pent-up demand for residential accommodation in the CBD being constrained by the government, the suburbs allowing higher densities with a demographic who understand the lifestyle of apartment living will continue to thrive,” he says.
