General News
17 December, 2024
Fernleigh back on the cards
After remaining dormant for several years, there are signs of life for the landscape-changing Fernleigh estate at Westbrook.
Fernleigh is a master planned community on the northern side of Shoesmith Road in Westbrook, designed by Hallmark Property to deliver 1,500 residential lots.
First proposed back in 2016, the development has been stagnant since 2019 after Toowoomba Regional Council (TRC) sought changes which would have made the project financially unviable for the developers.
Only 400 lots were approved and additional infrastructure charges added tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of each lot.
Fernleigh Properties Pty Ltd has sought a Preliminary Approval – Variation Request with TRC.
This initial proposal concerns a nine hectare parcel of land adjacent to the western portion of Shoesmith Road, previously used for horticultural and grazing purposes.
The success or lack thereof of the preliminary approval should give the developers a better idea if the entire Fernleigh estate can be approved in the future.
Although an exact figure is not given, the nine hectare lot will likely include new roads and several dozen new lots.
Submitted as part of the application is a Westbrook & Toowoomba Residential Land Market Research Report, prepared by 3D Property Consulting.
This report reveals the dire shortage of land for new lots in Westbrook, despite a huge demand which is indicated by a sharp rise in median prices for lots over the past decade.
From a peak of 66 land sales under 2,500m2 in 2015, there were ten in 2022, only two last year and three so far in 2024, with the report having been prepared in October.
From 2014 to 2024, the median price for lots has risen by over 70 per cent from $159,750 to $275,000 and by 61 per cent in the past four years alone.
Over the past ten years the median lot price has dropped from 1,000m2 to 690m2.
The market research report indicates developable residential land within Westbrook’s Priority Infrastructure Area is severely restricted.
“There is currently only 4 small parcels of developable land in Westbrook,” the report says.
“Two parcels totalling 6.99 ha are approved for a total of 71 lots and 2 parcels totalling 2.35 ha are unapproved and not available for sale or development in the short to medium term.”
The two parcels with no known development plans include a 1.27 hectare property at 41-43 Gore Street and a 1.08 hectare property at 29 Crockers Road.
Under the South East Queensland Regional Plan, which predicts the urban part of Toowoomba the population will grow by 76,000 people and 29,400 dwellings from 2021 to 2046, Westbrook and Highfields have been designated as the two Potential Future Growth Areas.
The announcement of a water treatment plant at Westbrook will be of interest to developers looking at building new estates in Westbrook and other emerging areas such as Wyreema.
