THE development of a $1.5 billion master-planned community in South Hedland will add significantly to the rate at which LandCorp land is released for residential building in the Pilbara.
The state developer has proposed development of a community to house up to 5,400 people, which it says should include up to 2,300 dwellings.
It will also have the potential for a primary school, commercial centre, future tertiary education site and an aged-care facility.
In announcing the Western Edge project, LandCorp chief executive Ross Holt said he expected to have a developer secured within four months, with work beginning soon after, and the entire project completed within five to seven years.
“There’s an energy, there’s a political drive, and there’s a housing imperative as well; there’s a lot of housing stress so we can’t sit back and say ‘our processes will take whatever they take’ ... we need to drive them,” he said.
“It’ll be a matter of not trying to eke out demand to keep up prices, but trying to get ahead of the game.”
Mr Holt said he expected developers to be able to move quickly in bringing land to market.
“Most developers love a short timeframe, because what burns money and resources is a long process,” he said.
It’s expected the first titles for 200 dwellings will be released in 2013-14, with a further 300 in the next year.
The increase in the supply of land for housing in South Hedland is also being bolstered by Humphrey Land Developments and BHP projects, which will have released 1,500 titles by the end of 2013-14.
Assuming Western Edge land is released progressively, the number of dwelling lots released per year in the Pilbara could double by 2015-16.
Last financial year, 1,084 titles were released; in 2014-15 this will increase to 1,617.
Mr Holt said more available land and rising demand for housing had resulted in the number of building businesses working in the Pilbara increasing from about six three years ago to more than 30 now.
The Western Edge project is part of the state government’s Pilbara Cities initiative, under which more than $1 billion of government money is being invested to make Karratha, Port Hedland, Newman and Onslow more desirable locations to live.
The plan is to build Karratha and Port Hedland, which both have populations of about 15,000, into cities of 50,000 people by 2035.
Newman’s population of about 7,000 is expected to increase to 15,000.
South Hedland’s population of about 9,000 will reach 16,000 once Western Edge and other developments are completed.
Focus is being put on encouraging transitional workers, or fly-in, fly-out workers, to live permanently in the Pilbara towns, but Mr Holt said the success of that depended on the quality of projects such as Western Edge.
“It needs to be of high quality if we are going to turn away from the FIFO model and get families to want to move and live in the Pilbara, rather than saying goodbye to their loved ones every few weeks,” he said.
The current number of transient worker accommodation beds in Hedland is sitting just fewer than 5,000, but that’s expected to increase to 15,000 by 2016.
LandCorp also announced the latest release of land in its Karratha Baynton West group housing development, which will be the second largest release in the Pilbara with more than 1,200 dwelling titles made available since the first lots were released in 2008.
The state developer expects land held at the Port Hedland Marina to provide up to 1,000 dwellings by 2015, but the land is yet to be released for development.
The Mulataga project, also in Karratha, to which the new Western Edge plan is being compared, will be the next largest release of land for residential building, with 800 titles expected over the next three years.
Developer Mirvac won the contract to develop the land, which at completion will have 2,500 dwellings.
Plans for Mulataga are being finalised and the first lots are expected to be released by the end of the year.
Some of the initial stages of the Western Edge accommodation will be set-aside specifically for service workers.
The state government and LandCorp are also working with resource companies to explore how they can be involved in the project and provide accommodation for their workers.
