Land rush at Sydney’s Aerotropolis with $450m government site on offer
The NSW government is set to market more than 80 hectares of industrial-zoned land near Western Sydney’s new international airport – enough space to develop a data centre or industrial estate with an end value of $1.5 billion.
The site is within the Aerotropolis zone where companies such as Amazon are setting up sprawling fulfillment centres.
It is one of the largest tracts of remaining land within the zone surrounding the upcoming airport and could fetch as much $450 million, according to sources familiar with the real estate.
Extending over 11,000 hectares in Sydney’s west, the Aerotropolis will have new rail stations and a motorway running through it, with the state government anticipating that the area will be the home for more than a million people over the next decade.
At the same time, Sydney is desperately short of industrial land. The shortfall is even worse than what the NSW government had predicted at the start of the year, with a land supply deficit in the range of 91 hectares to 319 hectares expected between 2025 and 2030, according to CBRE analysis.
The NSW government has been preparing the sale of the site in hopes of capitalising on the shortage of industrial land. It joins CSR in trying to sell at a time when various foreign investors are vying for a position in the area.
The lack of available land has become a major gripe for big industrial tenants and warehouse owners, some of whom have abandoned that market for Melbourne and Brisbane. Aldi, for example, took more than two years to find a lease for industrial land near the new airport that could meet its needs.
The state government quietly accepted tenders from various organisations to sell the site, with Colliers appointed to handle the sale. Colliers declined to comment.
A 6-hectare portion of the site has already been transferred to NSW Transport NSW for a Western Sydney truck rest stop close to the M7 and M4 motorway network, a planning department spokesman said.
The remaining land to go on the market comprises about 82.6 hectares, predominantly zoned for industrial use.
The NSW government-owned site will be able to house data centres and industrial estates, with institutional developers the most likely buyers.
Momentum for the Aerotropolis is building. Along with around $20 billion of federal and state infrastructure investment into the new airport, there is funding for the new M12 motorway.
Bradfield City, the CBD for the Aerotropolis, opened its first building last week – an advanced manufacturing and research facility that will be used by 11 NSW and ACT universities.
