Kevin Seymour says confidence has in Brisbane is back and he’s ready to begin building

Property tycoon Kevin Seymour feels an ‘air of confidence’ has returned to Brisbane’s property market and he expects to start construction on a riverside apartment project within months.

Queensland developer Kevin Seymour.

Veteran developer Kevin Seymour says an “air of confidence” has returned to the Queensland property sector after a period of upheaval and he expects construction to start on a Brisbane riverside luxury apartment project in the next few months.

The Seymour Group has battled to get projects off the ground because of higher construction costs and labour shortages.

However, Mr Seymour on Tuesday said the group had selected a builder, through the tender process, to construct a luxury boutique six-level apartment development 39 Griffith St, New Farm.

He said after documentation was finalised, construction was expected to start in the three months.

The Seymour Group has also restarted planning and pricing a nearby luxury residential project at 70-72 Oxlade Drive, which it shelved a couple of years ago.

The company’s last completed riverside luxury apartment project was The Oxlade at 80 Oxlade Drive, New Farm, which was finished in late 2023 – two years after its scheduled completion date.

Mr Seymour – a Brisbane-based rich-lister, who has been behind some of the city’s best known buildings – said the unsustainable construction cost increases had settled down.

“It’s not that things have gotten so much better but there have been no major additional cost increases in construction,” he said.

“So there is this air of confidence out there in the marketplace and people are seeing the potential for growth and an increase in ­demand.”

Mr Seymour said while costs were still an issue for Tier 1 builders he believed costings from Tier 2 builders were more reasonable.

“Also, some Tier 2 builders now have more availability, or in other words, they have space in their construction programs to take on more jobs and they seem to be quite reasonable in their pricing,” he said.

“You have to allow for CPI adjustments and things like that for their costs, labour and materials, but Tier 2 builders’ pricing is more realistic that what it was ­previously.”

Mr Seymour’s group failed to secure the 5727 sqm Auscare site in New Farm.

Mr Seymour said over the past six months he had seen well-funded local developers and some southerners increasingly prepared to pay more for prime development land in southeast Queensland. He said the Seymour Group has missed out on a number of potential quality residential and industrial development sites because of this “extreme competition”. “The competition for development sites is very strong but there seems to be an insatiable desire from developers,” he said.

Last year the Seymour Group was the underbidder for the 54ha The Link Coomera and the 2.5ha Silky Oaks Children’s Haven in Manly.

Mr Seymour said it also tendered for the 5725sq m Auscare site on Bowen Terrace, New Farm, but “we didn’t even make it to the second round”.

The tender market for the acquisition of properties has become very, very strong,“ he said.

“Am I out of touch? Are we not understanding what the market is telling us, or are we too conservative with our pricing?

“I don’t know what it is but there’s definitely a big competitive edge to this market.”

Mr Seymour said he believed a lack of industrial development land and inner city infill properties was one of the reasons for prices rising.

He said apartment prices had increased so much that projects that had been shelved because of rising costs were now back in the planning stages.

“Money is being invested in Queensland, which is a lot cheaper than Sydney, and the second thing is I see is that people are doing their feasibility (studies) and seeing growth in the price of units and industrial too,” Mr Seymour said.

“Also, governments and councils are so keen to get residential product into the market that they are allowing increased densities and increased heights.”

An artist’s impression of Newstead Green.

The Seymour Group is currently in the Queensland Planning and Environment Court, fighting property giant Dexus, which has appealed against elements of its approved $1.5bn Newstead Green development in Brisbane’s inner city.

The 15-storey project, dubbed Newstead Green, includes 800 apartments, shops, a Coles, offices, and a “green spine” of public walking paths.

Mr Seymour, 84, in 2023 famously survived a heart attack to see his champion pacer Leap To Fame become only the second horse to win the Triple Crown.

This season Leap To Fame has had a virus and was scratched from major races. Mr Seymour said that like harness racing, the property industry was always full of surprises.

“We have seen a lot of peaks and troughs. When you look back at the company we built you can look back with a bit of pride in what you’ve achieved over 60 years,” he said.

“And I still go into the office every day. I still love the cut and thrust of development.”

Originally published as Kevin Seymour says confidence has in Brisbane is back and he’s ready to begin building