Major Apartment Project Likely For $18m Box Hill Site

A prominent local developer with off-shore links looks certain to embark on a landmark apartment development at Box Hill following the $18.18 million purchase of a prominent Whitehorse Road site.

Savills Australia Director, Nick Peden, who brokered the 820 Whitehorse Road deal with Jesse Radisich and Clinton Baxter, said the land value price of $10,558 a square metre had smashed the previous price benchmark of circa $8,200 a square metre set only weeks earlier with the sale of a Station Street property.

"This was a great result for the vendor with little doubt that previous transactions and development approvals in the Box Hill precinct had an impact on the value the market put on the property," Mr Peden said.

"We received more than 150 enquiries and received 17 individual Expressions of Interest from a range of local and off-shore developers for a what was a prime development opportunity in a hot market."Mr Baxter said the corner site, currently home to an 1,835 square metre office building, was located in what was regarded as a major development precinct.

“This precinct’s development credentials are now well established – in direct proximity to Box Hill Central and railway station, Box Hill Institute, the hospital precinct and gardens – and so the response to the marketing campaign and the result were not a total surprise," Mr Baxter said.

“With apartment projects selling extraordinarily well including some selling out off-the-plan within days or weeks of release, it represented a must-consider opportunity for developers.”

The site sits within Box Hill’s Prospect Street Activity Precinct and the Major Development Built Form Precinct as does the Deague’s 36 and 26 level towers project.

Mr Radisich said Melbourne’s population had shown a growing desire for apartment living and that, along with a rise in student numbers, had been reflected in the number of multi-unit residential projects approved in and around the Melbourne CBD.

“That trend is also making its mark in the suburbs particularly around landmark retail destinations like Box Hill Central where access to shopping and other essential amenity is virtually immediate," Mr Radisich said.

“With the enormous cost of providing infrastructure, governments are encouraging higher density residential growth and that is now coinciding with a residential boom driven by population growth -  Victoria now the leading state according to ABS stats released this week - and also by an ageing population looking to downsize and locate close to everything.”