Jindabyne Land Expected to Set Australian Alps Record

Developers are lining up to get their hands on a rare 21ha parcel of lake-front land which brokers say is likely to set a new price record for the Snowy Mountains.

By early Monday more than 50 developers had sought more information on the greenfield site on the shores of Lake Jindabyne, at the gateway to both the Thredbo and Perisher ski fields.  It went to market just three days earlier.

Burgess Rawson Canberra managing director of Guy Randell said he expected the land to fetch at least $37 million.

“This is one of the most prominent sites we’ve seen in the area in the past 20 years,” Randell told The Urban Developer.

“As Australia’s alpine capital, Jindabyne’s residential and tourism accommodation is already stretched to capacity and this pressure will only increase as the region becomes a year-round destination.”

To be known as Lake Jindabyne Village, the site is key to the New South Wales government’s 40-year, $391-million Snowy River Special Activation Precinct (SAP) master plan.  That master plan aims to transform Jindabyne into a year-round economy backed by funding from the Snowy Hydro Legacy Fund.

Getting to this point has not been an easy route. The owners of the land parcel—on the corner of Alpine Way and Kosciuszko Road, which is the intersection leading to Perisher and Thredbo ski resorts—had tried for at least a decade to get the land rezoned to allow for the kind of development now envisaged.

From July 1 the land was gazetted SP3 which aims to encourage tourism and allows hostels and other tourist accommodation, indoor and outdoor recreation, and food and drink outlets.

Burgess Rawson Canberra engaged architects and town planners to put together a draft scheme, to show buyers what a development might look like, and potential yields.

“We've put together a draft scheme which we believe closely aligns with the NSW government's planning for this special innovation precinct,” Randell said. “The draft looks to deliver a range of self-catering and medium-density tourism accommodation around a small commercial node that doesn't take away from the town centre.”

The government’s master plan has been modelled on other successful international tourism destinations such as Queenstown, Lake Taupo, Jackson Hole, Lake Placid, Whistler, Banff and Zermatt. Specifically, it will open up land to the east, west and south of Jindabyne with new residential zoning and recreation, commercial and open space areas.

▲ An artist’s impression of tourist accommodation on the corner of Alpine Way and Kosciuszko Road in Jindabyne.

Key to the plan is a new mountain bike and adventure park which includes a gondola attraction, lakefront walking trail and cycleway designed to cement Jindabyne as an all-year-round tourist destination.

Randell said they were still sifting through the inquiries received over the weekend. There had been a lot of interest from Sydney and the Snowy Mountains, out of Canberra, and a few inquiries from Melbourne.

“A strategic land parcel of this location, views and year-round opportunity has never been released and we expect to see strong interest locally and internationally from developers, resorts, build to rent, and individual investors,” he said.

It’s the second time developers have been drawn to Australia’s ski fields by opportunities to develop prime recreational sites.

Last week the Victorian government began sifting through tenders from developers vying for the right to build a raft of facilities on four premium parcels of land with immediate access to the Mt Hotham alpine resort.

The Mt Hotham Resort Management Board (RMB)—a Victorian government statutory authority—is releasing the land as part of the Mt Hotham masterplan. That plan identifies five key precincts. One of them, the Hotham Central Precinct, will become a new centre for resort activity.