We recently completed our 1 into 3 lot land subdivision in Capalaba in Sep/Oct 2023. This project was acquired in early 2022 and took us a little longer than expected (20 months from acquisition to titles), however provided an excellent learning experience on dealing with sloping sites, negotiating outcomes with neighbours, and overcoming the many development obstacles that arise on a subdivision project in order to get a result. The following blog post will take you through our journey with the Larbonya project, the ups and downs and the path we took to complete the project.
Site Acquisition
We secured this property off-market through an agent we had been working with and who was aware of our requirements. We were the first to get the call up and did not hesitate to get across to the property and put a contract on it the same day. The property was a deceased estate and had been sitting idle for quite some time whilst the transfer to the beneficiary took place. It was 1900m2 and zoned Low Density Residential (LDR), with a 23.5m frontage and approximately, 3.5m of slope front to back. In Redland City Council, a block this size could achieve a total of 4 lots (by removing the house) and 3 lots (by keeping the house). Whilst there was a significant slope to the block and some issues to overcome, we could see the value in the acquisition and the potential options to achieve a stormwater solution to enable us to subdivide.
Due Diligence and DA Stage
During our Due Diligence (DD) period, we actively sought out our rear and side neighbours to discuss options for stormwater. Due to the the slope from our block and the directions of the contours meant that our rear neighbours (and side neighbour) were being affected during every major rain event. Water would come streaming off the back of our block and into their rear yards, which over time had well and truly water damaged the rear fences. We took this approach with our neighbours to suggest we could resolve this on their behalf if they'd allow a stormwater pipe through their yard. This was met with unanimous 'no' from the neighbours. After several discussions, including a pre-lodgement with Council on our alternative options, we decided to go unconditional and settle on the property without a lawful point of discharge, as we knew we had a few options up our sleeves to ensure the project remained profitable.
We settled on the property in late Jan 22 and immediately got to work in clearing out the house and garage and preparing the property to lease. The existing house was a solid 1970's era two-storey brick home, with 4 bedrooms and a huge downstairs storage/garage. Our plan was to lease out the front house to help cover our holding costs while we completed our council approvals.
Our pre-lodgement meeting during our DD period was less than favourable. We had been provided council advice that alternative options for stormwater may be considered should we be unable to get access through our neighbour’s property, however, when the formal minutes of the meeting were released it stated the opposite. In consultation with our team, we decided to submit our Development Application (DA) with a mix of detention tanks and rubble pits to satisfy the stormwater requirement, to see if we could get Council to honour the comments made to us during our pre-lodgement. Our initial DA was submitted in Mar 22, we then waited for 2 months for a response from Council which (as expected) was unsupportive. We completed a couple of RFI responses addressing the stormwater management plan requirements and attempting to demonstrate "non-worsening" through the development of our site, but to no avail. By June 22, we were quite certain that the development design as it stood would not be approved.
During this time, we kept in touch with our rear neighbours and continued discussions with them to see if we could come to an agreement that benefited both parties. One of our rear neighbours was far more amenable than the other, so we focused our efforts with them. They were concerned that any works to bring a pipe through their yard would impact a mature shade tree which they did not want disturbed. We tried to address this with use of vacuum excavation and arborist supervision, however they were not interested in pursuing. The option we had been discussing with them was a straight beeline from our rear boundary, down a grassed area, under their entertainment area and out to the street to council infrastructure. This made the most sense to us and was the "easiest" and most cost-effective option available, however this option was not going to work for the neighbours.
After many months of discussions and meetings, we ended up getting their approval to go down the right side of their property by tunnel boring underneath an existing granny flat (see image below), out to the front and by removing their existing driveway. This was a question and option we should have proposed to them far earlier than we did, however - we now had a solution to progress the project!
DA and Op Works Approval
We completed our re-design of our engineering pack and submitted to council in Oct 22, eagerly awaiting a speedy approval to allow us to progress to Operational Works. After some further discussions around stormwater management with council, we finally received our DA approval in Dec 22 (almost 12 months in to the project). Our team got straight onto the Operational Works (Op Works) pack and submitted to Council in early 23.
Between our DA Approval and Op Works Approval, a matter of months, Council raised further concerns around stormwater management which they wanted us to address, which included conditioning the construction of swales around our two new rear lots (to direct stormwater flow) and our stormwater inter-allotment system discharging into a newly constructed gully drain (rather than kerb and channel). Whilst frustrating at the time, we were in no position to delay and re-negotiate these items as we simply wanted to get on with the job.
Civil Construction Phase
With our approvals in hand, we tendered for our Civil Construction phase which included all water, stormwater (including tunnel bore) and sewer. We managed the internal services, earthworks, and driveway construction separately. Our Contractor commenced in early June with the stormwater construction, starting from our neighbour’s property and working their way up to our site.
The tunnel bore process was the critical part of this job and was completed swifty in the first couple of days to allow us to install the 225mm stormwater pipe under the neighbours existing granny flat structure. The tunnel bore method is an interesting process and consists of an entry trench being dug on one side and an exit trench on the other side of your obstacle, the auger machine then drills from one side on grade to other, before swapping over to a bore head to fit the size of the required hole for the pipe. During this process, a vacuum truck is used to ensure dirt/water is removed. Once the required pipe is installed appropriately, both trenches are backfilled. The following photos show the tunnel bore and the tight working conditions our team needed to overcome.
With the stormwater inter-allotment system completed, this was a major milestone for the Larbonya project and the remainder of the construction phase including the sewer and water was completed with ease. Once all services were installed, our team then completed the internal services and easement driveway pour, a total of 220m2 of concrete. The Civil Construction phase was completed in approximately 6 weeks from start to finish, with some minor lag between contractors. Our engineering team then completed their certification, and our surveyor completed their side to support our council submission and on-maintenance inspection. We passed the inspection with council and immediately submitted our Plan Sealing pack for review.
Plan Sealing and Titles
Given the amount of time we had leading up to the end of this project, we ensured our Plan Sealing pack had all the required evidence to satisfy all conditions of our approval and made sure we had consistent communication with the Plan Sealing office at council to provide anything additional as required. This process was seamless and by far the quickest stage in the project, completed in 20 days from initial submission to plan approval. We then submitted our plan and easements to Titles QLD and were issued titles for all three lots inside 10 business days.
Before and After
The existing property had a forest of trees (none of which were protected luckily) which we needed to clear in order to create our two rear lots. We opted to retain a few trees along the rear boundary to provide screening between our blocks and the rear neighbours.
We completed a basic renovation to the front house, to ensure it was appealing to the land buyers and added value to the overall development. We restored the roof, gutters, and downpipes, constructed new front stairs, painted (external and internal) and restored the hardwood timber floors inside the property. Overall, we were quite happy with how the front house ended up, we had given it a second lease on life for the new owners who purchased this large family home.
We opted for larger lots (all 600m2+) rather than demolishing the front house and going for maximum yield. Two key reasons for this, we needed the house to lease out during the timeframe we were trying to get our DA in place, and two the larger lots appealed more to the suburb and surrounding existing properties. Larger rear lots off an easement driveway are in our opinion a better option (in this case anyway).
Conclusion
We settled on Lot 1 and Lot 3 in October, and at the time of writing this blog we are close to securing a buyer for Lot 2. In summary, this project definitely didn't go to our original plan, however we managed to overcome the various issues we encountered and hold strong to get the end result. There was a few times during this project where we weren't sure if it would have a positive outcome but we dug deep and kept pushing forward. A number of lessons were learned during the Larbonya project which we take forward into our next deals. Some key ones being:
Ensure you explore all avenues and options with your design and table them all for consideration;
Understand the concerns and issues of your neighbours and strive to find a workable solution; and
Be persistent - when you hit a roadblock, keep working at it until you succeed.
We look forward to seeing the new owners construct their family homes on our new sites and are proud of what we have created in this pocket of Capalaba.
We are currently commencing our new 1 into 4 subdivision project in Birkdale and close to securing another couple of projects to commence in 2024. If you have an interest in working with us or simply want to know more about this project or one of our upcoming deals, please feel free to reach out for a chat.
Till next time,
Chris & Jon
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