THE Pilbara Cities initiative is providing property development firms with opportunities to expand beyond their normal scope of operations, according to a prominent Western Australian developer.
THE Pilbara Cities initiative is providing property development firms with opportunities to expand beyond their normal scope of operations, according to a prominent Western Australian developer.
West Perth-based residential land and property developer Cedar Woods was last week announced as one of nine successful developers that won the right to develop land packages in South Hedland.
Cedar Woods WA state manager Stuart Duplock said the land agreement, part of the Department for Regional Development and Lands Pilbara Cities program, allowed the developer to diversify its business.
“Pilbara Cities has provided the government impetus to spend the money on the infrastructure that will give developers confidence to get involved,” Mr Duplock said.
“In terms of Cedar Woods, our business is centred in the Perth metropolitan and Melbourne metropolitan areas.
“We have from time to time looked of outside those areas, in other states, so it’s been terrific to find another epicentre of activity at closer proximity. We haven’t had to leave the state, so that’s good for our business.”
Cedar Woods will develop a range of housing options on up to 170 lots at an 11.5 hectare site at the gateway of South Hedland, catering for a range of affordable housing and conventional housing options.
Cedar Woods’ bid includes alliances with Foundation Housing, IBN Corporation, BGC Modular and Gumala Aboriginal Corporation to provide a mix of housing options.
“The mandate was about providing affordable housing, and they talk about the different categories that make that up: key worker, social housing, indigenous housing, and so on
“So I think it was very important that we demonstrated that we would have an element of that to meet their vision,” Mr Duplock said.
“We want to come up with different lot sizes to meet the different requirements of the consumer; everything from single people to families.
“We will be also engaging with all of the builders, local and Perth-based, who are servicing the region to try and offer turn-key housing solutions, which tends to be what the market is looking for up there.
“So rather than buy land and get someone else to build a home, we’re going to explore house and land packages.”
Mr Duplock also said the firm would be examining further opportunities as they come to light under Pilbara Cities.
“We’re keen to have a look at all of the land releases that are made available by LandCorp and the Department of Regional Development and Lands
“We’ll selectively choose to bid on the ones that suit our strengths, which are masterplanned residential communities and the residential housing sector.”
