Tamworth property sector booms outwards with 82 subdivisions blocks soon to hit the market

Scores of new homes will soon be on sale in Moore Creek, Calala and East Tamworth.

Subdivision projects currently before planners are worth over $2 million, according to Tamworth Regional Council's application tracker.

Development manager Sam Lobsey said surveyors had been hard at work since the beginning of the pandemic, driven by record housing demand.

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There are several more working their way through the development pipeline, he said.

"We're trying to keep up with the demand. There's still demand there," he said.

"Where the demand is coming from is still a bit unknown, whether it all is locally-based people wanting to buy lots, or whether it's investors out of the city. There's talk of some investment from the city. Maybe coming from there a little bit."

The council has also received applications for brownfield subdivisions, to densify inner parts of the Tamworth city, particularly in West and South Tamworth, he said.

But thus far, no developer has approached the council looking to construct the city's first apartment building.

The next major housing development is likely to be the Arcadia project behind the Longyard golf course, Mr Lobsey said.

"We're certainly expecting a continual releasing of land," he said.

"We do already have a lot of land either zoned, earmarked for release or undergoing the DA process. There is still, in terms of what we've currently got zoned, there's still a lot of land out there. Can't see it shifting any time soon."

Bath Stewart surveyor David Lord said many of the projects getting off the ground have been in the development pipeline for years.

"It's not something you jump at. You'd like to when the market turns and when there's a demand to be in a position to create those lots. That's what has happened," he said.

It's a great time to work in the field, with an "acute shortage" of surveyors and engineers, he said.

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That said, they also have to contend with a planning system more clogged with applications than ever.

The city is booming, he said.

"There's quite a few developments happening at the moment.

"It's all moving forward, it's all positive. I believe, realistically, the price of land for the risk of developing, it is cheap in Tamworth."

Tamworth council has approved a 13-unit subdivision in Moore Creek Gardens, and another 13-unit subdivision in the same place, the six-lot Lampada subdivision on Burgess Lane, and an 8-dwelling subdivision at 64 Valley Drive East Tamworth.

It has yet to approve the 31-lot Redbank Estate Stage 8 project on Calala Lane, or an 11-dwelling Forest Heights Estate subdivision at Moore Creek.

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