Developers abandon Frenchs Forest, paving the way for families to buy in northern beaches
On the back of rezoning delays, developers are ‘nervous’ and losing interest in committing to Frenchs Forest, in Sydney’s north. But find out why this is a promising sign for families.
Manly
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Developers are losing interest in Frenchs Forest — paving the way for families to buy in to the transforming suburb.
Real estate agents are reporting developers, who once salivated at the prospect of buying, are now dropping out fearing the planned phase two rezoning of the area may never happen.
The new Frenchs Forest town centre (phase one), is expected to be rezoned by the State Government by the end of the year.
Phase two, which takes in residential streets to the north west, was expected to take another 10 years. That now appears to be a conservative estimate, with some fearing it may never happen.
The rezoning would boost the area’s housing capacity by enabling developers to buy single dwelling properties and transform them into multi-dwelling unit blocks.
But real estate agents said high rental vacancy rates, half-empty boarding houses and falling rents indicate there is not the demand for housing that was predicted.
Northern Beaches Council, which will make the final call on phase two, has said nothing will happen until the Beaches Link tunnel is built.
“We’ve always clearly said that phases two and three would only be progressed if there was infrastructure in place to support the growth,” Mayor Michael Regan said. “That means at the very least the delivery of the Northern Beaches tunnel and the promised east-west bus rapid transit.”
On Saturday a house within the phase two area sold under the hammer for $1.8m to a young family. The other bidders were also families. Not one developer was interested.
Several years ago developers had offered money to vendors Ian and Janine Prior not to sell to anyone else, and promised them $3m at a later date. However the developers withdrew.
Stuart Bath, of Skyline Real Estate, said developers were no longer interested in phase two properties, fearing it may never be rezoned.
“Developers are nervous about buying in phase two because the rezoning process is taking so long,” he said. “I think the government will develop the high school site and then see if the roads cope; phase two may not get off the ground.”
However, he said it was good news for families, who were taking advantage.
“Now it is just families wanting a home to live in who are interested.”
Megan Mackay, of Ray White, said developers were taking a very conservative view of rezoning given the State Government has stepped back from developments in South Dural, Ingleside and St Leonards in recent years.
Some agents predict there simply isn’t the demand to warrant the phase two rezoning. Agent Anne Roche, of Parnell Partners, said the suburb already has a high number of vacant rental properties and boarding houses are half empty.
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