Listed developer Peet and the state’s second-biggest homebuilder, ABN Group, will develop more than 600 housing lots in Midvale after purchasing a parcel of land from the Department of Housing for $18 million.
The transaction follows Stockland announcing earlier this week a $28.1 million deal with the Department of Housing, to purchase a 36-hectare parcel of land adjacent to its Whiteman Edge residential community near Brabham.
Stockland said its plan was to develop around 570 lots at Brabham.
ABN Group managing director Dale Alcock told Business News the company looked forward to collaborating with Peet and the Department of Housing to deliver the estate.
"We think that it will be quite a constructive input from our point of view, not only as an investment, but also to bring some builder smarts and so forth to work cooperatively and collaboratively with a land developer and also with the department in terms of the potential initiatives to boost affordable housing that may play out," Mr Alcock said.
"We're pretty excited about that and the possibility of innovation that might flow."
He said the land had some geotechnical issues, which would be a challenge for determining how the estate's civil infrastructure and engineering design would be rolled out.
"If we look at it from a ground up approach, it's quite exciting to be involved in a land development where we've got some input coming in from the side from the Department of Housing as to what they're looking to achieve out of it," Mr Alcock said.
"From the private sector side, by getting that interaction between developer and builder from an early stage, we can give direct and transparent feedback from developer to builder and vice versa, which is quite an exciting opportunity."
Housing Minister Bill Marmion said the deals would be a big boost to the metropolitan land supply at a crucial time.
He said the sales were good examples of the positive results of the state government’s push for more affordable housing in the metropolitan area by 2020.
Since 2010, the strategy has produced more than 7,400 lots in joint ventures with some of the state's largest developers, with 70 per cent of those lots sold below the median land price.
In total, the government has delivered 14,8000 affordable housing opportunties through the policy.
“I am confident Perth home buyers will be the big winners from both new projects,” Mr Marmion said in a statement.
“The department will continue to work with Peet and ABN Group to investigate the affordable housing potential of the exciting new Midvale development.
“This will help ensure the rapidly growing Midland region is accessible to a wide range of Western Australians, including the important first home buyer market.”
