Idle Defence land across Australia will be put on the market

MULTIMILLION-dollar lots of disused Defence lands across Australia estimated to be valued at $1.4 billion will finally be sold off to developers to ease national housing shortages.

EXCLUSIVE

MULTIMILLION-dollar lots of disused Defence lands across Australia estimated to be valued at $1.4 billion will finally be sold off to developers to ease national housing shortages.

But the nation’s developers have warned the Turnbull Government it needs to get cracking and send the properties to market with the country heading for a significant “cooling off” in property developments.

In a detailed updated review of Defence plans to rationalise assets, structures and management prepared last week for parliamentary estimates hearings next week, Defence Secretary Greg Moriarty confirmed 17 bases earmarked for disposal were to all go ahead.

The 17 include valuable housing lands in Bringelly in Sydney’s south west and a 3.6ha site in Penrith as well as lands about Melbourne, Darwin and Brisbane which were first identified in 2012 as defunct and should have been disposed off in 2015 but evaluations of whether there was any other possible Commonwealth use and approvals delayed the process.

Now not only will the 17 be sold, but Defence has declared it had strengthened its capability to put more unused estates before government quicker for sell-off approval.

MORE: Defence launches new aerial surveillance program to track ‘dark targets’

Darwin Defense Housing for sale on the Stuart Highway Berrimah.

Urban Taskforce chief executive Chris Johnson, who represents the country’s top developers including Mirvac, Stockland, Lend Lease and Multiplex welcomed the confirmation of the sell off but warned the government to go to market faster.

Mr Johnson said the delays had meant the value of the lands, some outside Sydney and Melbourne particularly, had increased but their sale may miss the property industry peak.

“At the moment there is a cooling off within the development industry for a number of factors, banks are being a bit tighter, the Chinese government is slowing down, funds coming out with various levies, affordability by governments around the country — all of these are slowing down the industry’s interest and confidence level somewhat and that can spiral down fairly quickly,” he said yesterday.

“That can come up again in a few years time … the real shame would be the slowness of the government reaching decisions on disposal of these lands could mean they miss this current bubble in terms of development opportunities.

Darwin Defense Housing for sale on the Stuart Highway Berrimah.

“They should have moved faster and still now need to move fast to try and catch the market while it’s still interested.”

According to Defence, some sites earmarked for sale were already or progressing to market including in Maribyrnong outside of Melbourne and a 190 hectare site in Maryborough in Queensland which should be completed by the end of this year.

Homes formally occupied by Pine Gap military personnel in Alice Springs will also be sold off, with more modern homes being built for the mostly US military and spy staff, as well as various disused rifle ranges in WA and Queensland.

Defence will also tell Estimates next week it had reduced bureaucratic layers and created stability in key management positions for consistency to oversee change sweeping changes to Defence despite several departmental senior executive departures in recent months.

Originally published as Idle Defence land across Australia will be put on the market