Melbourne couple sells Wyndham Vale sheep farm to Frasers Property for $95 million

All eyes in Australia are on the sale of the S. Kidman cattle empire which Hancock Prospecting and BBHO syndicate are competing. While the bidding process is still ongoing, another giant property deal was closed in Melbourne with a couple selling their sheep farm in Wyndham Vale for $95 million.

The unnamed couple purchased their 115-hectare farm on Black Forest Road in the 1970s and just sold it to Fraser Property, a property developer in Singapore which plans to develop the land into a housing project. The sale, negotiated by Savills Australia agents Clinton Baxter and Julian Heathrich, is considered “one of the largest site acquisitions in Melbourne in recent years,” Sydney Morning Herald reports.

On the former sheep farm would rise a $440-million housing estate where 1,400 homes would be built, including 20,000 square metres of shopping and retail outlets. The area is apparently a hot site for change of owners since another private landholding nearby in Point Cook is about to hit the market.

If all goes well, the 103-hectare farm at 50a Hacketts Road would likely even sell at a higher price of $150 million. The property within the Aviators Field, marketed by Frank Nagle and Andrew Egan of Biggin & Scott Land, could accommodate 1,800 residential lot developments within a town centre.

Developers are attracted to Wyndham, the fastest growing suburb in Melbourne with a population growth rate of 7 percent annually.

Clinton Baxter, state director of Savills Australia, declined to comment on the price of the Wyndham vale sheep farm but says the former owners are delighted with the sale. He explains, “With the encroachment of suburbia they’ve chosen to sell and demand has been such from the development sector the value has increased markedly and they’ve secured a good solid price for the property,” Herald Sun quotes.

Baxter shares that they thought the land, a farming property for the last 40 or 50 years, would sell for at least $70 million because it is adjacent to a proposed train station. The land subdivision market in the city is at an all-time high with 22,000 lots in metropolitan Melbourne sold the past 12 months.