Developers pounce on vacant Surry Hills site that wraps around ventilation stack
A Surry Hills development site that wraps around a ventilation shaft servicing Sydney’s Eastern Distributor tunnel has sold for well over its asking price at auction, in a sign of the increasing demand for vacant inner-city land.
The 978-square-metre site at 117 Flinders Street, which was offered for sale on by vendor SOFS Pty Ltd, sold for $8.585 million – $1.735 million above reserve.
The site comes with existing development plans, which were approved after an appeal to the Land and Environment Court in 2017, for 24 apartments with ground-floor retail and basement parking. The original application was amended to include a commercial component.
Selling agent Conor Arnold, of Richardson and Wrench, said the buyer, a local developer, planned to proceed with the SJB-designed development.
The sale of the site was a sign of increasing demand for development sites in Sydney’s inner city, said Mr Arnold.
“We had seven registered bidders, four active and all of them confident to put some serious money on the table,” he said, explaining that interest had been primarily from local developers, including companies based in the eastern suburbs.
Bidding for the site commenced at $6 million with a total of 30 bids recorded.
“We’re seeing it across the board – developers are back and they’re happy to compete for a good site.”
Mr Arnold said developers were undeterred by the site’s proximity to the ventilation shaft because an environmental assessment had found that emissions at the site were below recommended maximum levels.
“We had very little in the way of negative comments. People understand that it’s all part and parcel of living and building in an inner-city environment,” he said.
The site is one of the few remaining vacant development sites in the inner-city area, says Mr Arnold, who pointed to the White Bay Power Station site as one of the few other examples.
“That’s an enormous site. It’s very rare to get a vacant site of this size in the city,” he said.
“This was a trophy location close to Oxford Street, the Sydney Cricket Ground, light rail and Moore Park, so it’s easy to see why it was in such hot demand.”
Media coverage at the time the development was approved for the site showed that the then owner Sofs intended to keep the apartments and lease them out. It is unknown whether the new buyer intends on pursuing the same strategy or selling apartments on to private buyers following their completion.
