Arissa’s Surfside Greenfield Community Sells Quickly in Regional Bonanza

Brothers Frank and Joe Scarf believe regional living is here to stay as they throw the covers off their Crescent Head land release in coastal NSW.

The brothers have a long family connection to the area and their development company, Arissa, secured the site for The Crescent at the end of 2021, in a play that has cemented their move into greenfield development. 

Arissa managing director Frank Scarf founded the company with his brother Joe in 2009 and they had been predominantly developing apartments.

“The apartment building space became very tricky … we’re not a building company so we always had to do our projects in joint venture or contract build and it became quite difficult,” Scarf said.

“We quite enjoy the process of canvassing land owners and there is less competition in the greenfield area. I think we’ve found our niche in the land subdivision space.” 

While there has been some concern over the resilience of the regional markets, in the wake of the pandemic-induced regional boom, Arissa is confident in the feasibility of the project. 

Scarf said the site close to Crescent Head had “all the right metrics”.

“The fact that there was no supply in the region, it was the last piece of zoned land that’s not flood affected in Crescent Head.”

The 109-lot estate will include bigger blocks of 600-1000 square metres. Scarf said the site could have accommodated up to 130 blocks but they had made the decision to create bigger house sites that were “unique to the area”.

▲ Greenfield market will continue to grow as people continue to want to work remotely.

RPM managing director Peter Grant said more than 30 blocks had already been snapped up after just three weeks on the market.

Arissa had been very careful in how it designed its development of the greenfield site, which would add to the town’s small population, he said. 

“Crescent Head is known for its slow, rolling waves for the surfers and a lovely little caravan park that’s basically impossible to get into,” Grant said.

“They haven’t had a land release in several decades so this was always going to be well received. But we needed to make sure the local community was comfortable with it too.”

In addition to the 109 lots there will also be about 12.5ha of connectivity, roadways and parkland.

Civil works were expected to begin later this year.