A syndicate of expatriate Chinese investors has won approval to develop a $1 billion, high-rise apartment project, creating one of the largest residential developments in the Melbourne CBD.
Approval for the massive project, which will deliver 1800 apartments in twin 79-storey towers, comes amid growing unease the apartment boom will culminate in oversupply.
A grim scenario has been outlined for the Melbourne and Brisbane markets especially, with forecaster BIS Shrapnel predicting a “messy end” to the boom.
Undaunted, the 3L Alliance is pressing ahead with a spectacular project, dubbed Queens Place and designed by high-profile architects Fender Katsalidis and Cox Architecture.
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Urban regeneration veteran John Tabart has been recruited to lead an ambitious bid by a China-backed consortium to develop a 400-hectare site in suburban Melbourne.
The government is now evaluating the AEC plans, comprising skyscrapers, higher education facilities and residential living, and is expected to announce its verdict by mid-year.
The proposal – to bring 80,000 residents and 50,000 students to the former state farm at Werribee in Melbourne’s southwest – has been put forward by local finance, funds management and property group Investors Direct Financial Group founded by former PwC executive Bill Zheng.
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The local group has the backing of Chinese institutional and corporate investors.
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal.
He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.
