Real estate experts call for medium density focus to spur Nambour revival

Real Estate agents Ian Black and Tristan Brown, below, say Nambour needs more developments in town, like Pinnacle on Maud, above.

by Janine Hill

A NAMBOUR real estate agent has called for medium to high density housing to trigger the gentrification of the town.

Tristan Brown, principal of Remax Realty, said unit developments would inject people and life into Nambour’s streets and money into local businesses.

Mr Brown called on the council to proactively encourage medium to high density development in Nambour, saying the town’s rejuvenation was happening too slowly.

He said the designation of a special entertainment precinct in town was a positive “but I’ve not noticed any real change coming from that.

“I’ve been in real estate for 10 years and I can’t say I’ve seen any great change in that time,” he said. 

“I don’t know if we’re going to see Nambour gentrify in the next decade at the rate we’re going.”

Mr Brown said units would meet a demand for affordable housing and the occupants would bring foot traffic and be more likely to dine out in town, boosting business.

Gavin Wuiske, general manager of Grandview Developments, responsible for the 42 unit Pinnacle on Maud complex, said he hoped the project would not be the last of its kind for the town.

However, it had not been an easy project, at five to six years in the making and $800,000-$900,000 in council and Unitywater infrastructure costs alone.

Mr Wuiske said medium density housing would work for Nambour while continued subdivisions dotted with a few convenience shops worked against.

“All the little shops, the groceries, the retailers in the subdivisions, that’s where people shop, and when they have to do a big shop, they go down to Maroochydore. All the facilities that Nambour has aren’t getting used.”

Gavin said developers needed encouragement to look at Nambour rather than the coastal strip, where returns were better.

Tristan Stent, a partner in Stenwood, responsible for the 14-block Coes Creek subdivision The Retreat, said that land prices and development costs, including infrastructure charges, meant it was it was becoming increasingly difficult for developers to deliver blocks of land at prices that could meet the market.

He said smaller blocks and units were the only way forward.

“I see the need for it. People need affordable property,” he said.

Century 21 real estate agent Ian Black also supported medium density development in Nambour.

Ian has kept a news clipping from 2007 about a four-storey unit development proposed by the Walker Corporation which eventually walked away, unable to generate the required support for the project.

He has had the clipping laminated “to poke under noses at appropriate times” and said now was time to revisit the idea of similar projects for town.

A joint venture project on council land, similar to one once proposed for Mooloolaba, where a developer could provide public carparking on a lower level in exchange for the right to build and sell units above, could get the ball rolling.