A large former Uniting Church owned property has been bought by an owner-occupier who will build a family home on the site

A rare large landholding in the inner north generated bidding battle over two visions for the site — a subdivision or a family home.

Mark Creevey and Tony Williams at 40 and 50 Lorward Ave, Bardon. Picture: Tertius Pickard

THE new owner of a large landholding in an inner northern suburb aims to build a luxury family home on the site after beating a developer to the rare asset.

He paid $3 million under the hammer for the 5099sq m vacant property over two lots at 40 and 50 Lorward Ave, Bardon, in a deal struck by Ray White Special Projects Mark Creevey and Tony Williams.

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Mr Creevey said the property generated strong interest from developers, builders and owner-occupiers.

“There was interest received from the development sector on the basis of undertaking a low density residential subdivision with most groups looking to develop five to six lots,” he said.

“In addition there was also strong interest from the owner-occupier market.

“At the end there was a developer and an owner-occupier fighting it out and the owner-occupier won and he will build a family house on the site.”

The sale of the site had sparked community concern over the potential to overdevelopment of the property which has a character zoning.

The auction had eight registered bidders and generated 45 bids with the opening bid at $1.5 million.

According to CoreLogic the property was previously owned by The Uniting Church in Australia Property Trust and it had three building on it which had been removed.

Bardon has become a luxury residential hot spot with The Nest — a home designed by Brisbane architect Shaun Lockyer on a 4000sq m site at 59 Nestor Ave — selling for $7.8 million late last year.

It was one of the biggest residential sales of the and Mr Williams said it inspired him and Mr Creevey to cast the net wider for potential buyers.

“The high end residential market is doing quite well in Brisbane at the moment,” he said.

“We thought we’d focus on both markets — development and owner-occupier — in case someone was looking for a really good house site.

“A 5000sq m development site in Bardon, which is almost inner city being 6km from the CBD, with the opportunity to build a luxury home is very rare.”