Malaysian property powerhouse, TA Global Berhad is testing the Sydney market with the sale of its 11-hectare Little Bay Cove site, valued at over $280 million, which has a masterplan available to increase the number of dwellings in the popular coastal location.
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It comes at a time when the Sydney housing market is in a high demand cycle.
Mirvac, one of the country's largest mixed-use developers, said at its results last week that the booming housing market had seen it settle 977 residential lots since July last year with the group targeting more than 3300 residential lot settlements in the full year to June 2017.
Most settlements are expected to fall in the second half of the financial year; and overall it secured future income with $3.1 billion of residential pre-sales.
There was a marginal rise in defaults to 2 per cent, but Mirvac said more than 70 per cent of defaults resold with "financial upside".
Little Bay Cove is at the southern end of the eastern suburbs coastline, not far from Coogee Beach and next to the vast Prince Henry community.
More than $50 million has already been spent on infrastructure, including roads and landscaping and the site is masterplan-approved for a combination of single-lot housing, townhouses and apartments, with an opportunity to add value by increasing the number of dwellings.
Advisers on the sale, Knight Frank's Tim Holtsbaum and Eugene Evgenikos in conjunction with JLL's Ben Hunter and Sam Brewer, said the extensive land site and its proximity to golf courses, Little Bay Beach and shopping centres such as Westfield Eastgardens, will attract local and overseas developers.
TA Global Developments, the Australian arm of the group, bought the site in 2010 with Charter Hall Group, to jointly manage the development of Little Bay Cove.
In November 2013, after a shift in direction to focus on office, retail and industrial, the Charter Hall Opportunity Fund No.5 sold its 50 per cent interest in Little Bay Cove to TA Global Development, following completion of the estate works.
In April 2015, Charter Hall created a new retail partnership, RP6, to secure the Pacific Square Shopping Centre in Maroubra for a purchase price of $137 million.
According to Tim Holtsbaum, Knight Frank's director, site sales, NSW, and Eugene Evgenikos, Knight Frank's head of metropolitan sales, NSW, this is one of the last eastern suburbs coastal subdivisions available for development.
"This is a unique opportunity to acquire a high-end development site in a prime, coastal eastern suburbs location. We haven't seen a site like this with so much potential come to the eastern suburbs market for years, and it is the only significant waterfront development site remaining in the area," Mr Holtsbaum said.
"There is scope for increased density, subject to council approval," Mr Evgenikos added.
JLL's head of metropolitan sales and investments NSW Sam Brewer and JLL's national director, sales and investments NSW, Ben Hunter said not only has there not been stock of this scale offered for a long time, "but its masterplan approval will be particularly appealing for a developer".
