Melbourne’s first Jewish-owned golf course slated to be $150m housing site

Mr Kaufman and his Jewish colleagues formed the idea to develop a golf club after Melbourne Jews were barred from joining the city’s many other private clubs due to antisemitic practices of the time.

In response to this discrimination, membership of Cranbourne Golf Club was open to anyone provided they were of “good golfing character”.

The development of the Cranbourne Golf Club followed the opening of Sydney’s first Jewish golf club, the Monash Country Club in Ingleside in the city’s northern suburbs in 1950.

The decision to sell the Melbourne club – considered one of the city’s best “sand belt” courses and location for many tournaments – follows a $120 million merger agreement struck with the Huntingdale Golf Club in Oakleigh in 2022.

Under the deal, Huntingdale agreed to accept Cranbourne members in exchange for an immediate $10 million cash injection for Huntingdale course renovations.

Price expectations are in the “mid to high $100 millions”.

“Whilst there is sadness in [the] closure of the Cranbourne Golf Club, we look forward to the opportunity to assist so many in need within our community,” said Cranbourne Country Club president Brad Wein.

The offering comprises about 70.4ha of residential zoned land that could support between 1000 and 1500 dwellings – equating to a housing estate with a gross end value of about $1 billion once completed.

Peter Sagar & Paul Callanan of LAWD have been appointed by Cranbourne Country Club to sell the golf course via an expressions of interest campaign. Patrick McNulty and Tom Byrnes of Charter Keck Cramer will act as transaction advisers.

The property includes over 1.7 kilometres of dual road frontage onto Glasscocks Road and Huon Park Road. It lies within the City of Casey, one of Melbourne’s fastest growing municipalities with a population anticipated to grow to approximately 540,000 by 2041.

Its offering comes as the Victorian government looks to deliver on an ambitious plan to provide 800,000 homes over the next 10 years.

“The Victorian property industry is experiencing a period of high planning uncertainty with precinct structure plan approval delays, windfall gains tax issues and serviceability concerns. This property offers maximum certainty on delivery, which is critical for all major developers,” Mr Sagar said.

Alongside the listing of Cranbourne Golf Course, bids have sharpened for Kingswood Golf Course in Dingley, also in Melbourne’s south-east, which AustralianSuper put up for sale in September. The 53ha site could support up to 1000 homes. AusSuper via investment manager ISPT paid $125 million for it in 2014.

While golf participation is growing – club memberships across the country grew by 2.7 per cent in 2021-22 following record 6.4 per cent growth in the previous 12 months, according to Golf Australia – a number of Melbourne clubs have sold their courses to developers for large sums of money.

In 2016, the late developer and Rich Lister Neville Pask acquired the 67ha Kingston Links Golf Course for more than $60 million, with plans for a large housing estate on a portion of it.

ASX-listed Mirvac purchased The Eastern Golf Club in Doncaster in Melbourne’s east for about $100 million in 2011 and has redeveloped into a housing estate, while former Carlton football player-turned-developer Fraser Brown purchased the former Amstel Golf Course in 2015 for about $40 million.

In another sporting-related development play, the Melbourne Racing Club has announced it has cancelled plans to sell off a 112ha portion of Sandown Racecourse and will instead explore either a full sale or retaining the property as a racing facility.

MRC chairman Matthew Cain said a partial sale was “not the preferred financial option for the club at the moment”.

He said the difference between a partial sale and a full rezoning was about $300 million.