Stockland is racing to tap a sector of the housing market that continues to boom even as demand triggered by rising population falls away from the country that has closed its borders to the outside world.

The country’s largest listed residential developer last Thursday took on board the 100 or so staff it acquired as part of its $620 million acquisition of Halcyon, the Queensland-based land lease developer, giving Stockland crucial skills to expand its well-flagged push into the sector.