Braddon Northbourne Flats site on the market again, a year after failed sale

A prominent Braddon site on Northbourne Avenue has been put up for sale by the ACT government, a year after the site was pulled from the market following failed negotiations.

The 15,607-square-metre site of the former Northbourne Flats public housing in Braddon will be auctioned next month by the ACT government's Suburban Land Agency.

A mixed use precinct is proposed for the site on Block 4, Section 60 and it will be marketed under the name of "Braddon Place".

It would have 25 metre frontage to Northbourne Avenue and has an indicative dwelling yield of 602, of those 90 would be required to be affordable.

The former public housing site was placed on the market via tender in 2018, it was to be sold as package with another block in Turner. City Renewal Authority chief executive Malcolm Snow said at the time this would achieve the best design outcome for the site.

The blocks were previously a part of the government's asset recycling initiative and the sites sat together. But a Suburban Land Agency spokesman said as they were no longer part of the initiative it was easier to separate the sites.

The Suburban Land Agency is considering how it will take the Turner site to market.

"The Braddon site was quite easy to take to market because it was a single block and the Turner site is larger," a Suburban Land Agency spokesman said.

"The SLA is taking the opportunity now to have a look at that to see whether there is a different model for releasing that [Turner] site."

In 2019, negotiations for the sites failed as the reserve price could not be met. Canberra developers John Russell and Wayne Gregory, through their company Braturn, were selected as the preferred tenderer.

They had planned a development called Hyper on Northbourne, which would have included 200 build-to-rent apartments, a social housing development for people with intellectual disabilities, two hotels, a city farm and 1000 metres of commercial space.

The Suburban Land Agency spokesman said there had been a review into the failed process. He said when the blocks were last taken to market the City and Gateway Urban Design Framework had not been finalised.

"When it previously went to the market back in 2018, the City Gateway and Urban Design Framework had not yet been resolved yet so there was a lot of uncertainty back then," he said.

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This framework introduced new planning policies for sites along Northbourne Avenue. It would also pave the way for the construction of 37,000 new dwellings on Northbourne Avenue corridor.

A successful buyer would be required to have its design endorsed by the National Capital Design Review Panel and the Suburban Land Agency before a development application could be lodged.

The sale of the block comes after a report by the Housing Industry Association predicted the construction of new apartments in Canberra would fell by almost 60 per cent in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.

But the spokesman said based off market feedback the Suburban Land Agency had received they were confident in a sale.

"The advice from our agents is yes there is demand for this product," he said.

"It's in a premium location, right in Braddon next to Haig Park. We were confident if we did take the site to market there would be interest and we would be able to sell the site."

The spokesman would not be drawn on an indicative selling price and said market valuations were ongoing.

"We haven't set the reserve at this point," he said.

The block would be auctioned on June 30. A location for the auction has yet to be decided, as the spokesman said the Suburban Land Agency would wait for the government health advice to determine if an auction would be held online or on-site.