Construction Leads in Glenmore Park, NSW

Residential construction in Glenmore Park

Look, if you’re working the residential building game in Western Sydney, you’d be mad to ignore Glenmore Park. I’ve been on sites here since the early 2000s, when the big masterplanned estates were still chewing through the paddocks. The place has settled now. It’s not a boomtown anymore, but there’s a steady, solid pulse of work. Right now we’ve got four development applications lodged, which tells you the market isn’t frantic, but it’s ticking over. The bread and butter here is new home construction, followed closely by granny flats and secondary dwellings. That’s where the money’s at for a local builder.

The housing stock tells the story. Glenmore Park is almost entirely a product of the late 90s and early 2000s. You don’t find period homes or Federation cottages here. It’s brick veneer and Colorbond roofs, mostly on decent 500 to 600 square metre blocks. The original owners are getting older now. Their kids have moved out, and the mortgage is paid off. That’s your client base. They’re not renovating for themselves anymore. They’re building a granny flat out the back for mum and dad, or to rent to a young family for extra cash. The knock-down-rebuild market is small but growing. Some of those early project homes are just too tired to justify a renovation, so the slab gets ripped up and a modern four-bedder goes in its place.

Dealing with the local council is a game of patience. They’re not the worst in Sydney, but they’re not the quickest either. Expect a standard DA turnaround of around three to four months if your paperwork is tight. They’re sticklers for stormwater detention and landscaping plans. Every second DA I see gets a condition for a 1000-litre rainwater tank, even for a granny flat. Know that going in. The council also has a hard line on side setbacks for secondary dwellings. You’ll need a minimum 900mm clearance to the boundary, and they’ll measure it. If you’re doing a granny flat, get your BASIX certificate sorted before you lodge. It saves a fortnight of back-and-forth.

The clients themselves are a mixed bag, but the dominant type is the upsizer who doesn’t want to leave. You get a lot of empty nesters in their late 50s who bought here for $250,000 back in 2002. Their house is worth over a million now, but they don’t want the hassle of moving to a retirement village. They want a single-level home with a decent alfresco area and a separate space for the grandkids. Then you’ve got the investors. They’re not flashy. They’re looking at duplex sites or dual occupancy opportunities on the bigger blocks near the M4 on-ramp. They don’t want architect-designed statements. They want a compliant, rentable floorplan that returns 4.5% gross yield.

The market itself is flat but stable. Prices aren’t climbing like they are in the Hills District, but they’re not dropping either. A decent four-bedder on a standard block will set you back around $1.1 to $1.3 million to buy, and about $350,000 to $400,000 to build from scratch, depending on finishes. Trades are tight but available. You can still get a good brickie if you book them three months out. The real opportunity in Glenmore Park right now isn’t the flashy custom home. It’s the secondary dwelling. Council is approving them consistently, and the demand from renters is strong because the area has good schools and the train station at Glenmore Park is finally getting some upgrades. If you’re a chippy or a concreter, that’s where you’ll find the steady work. No bullshit. Just a slab, a frame, and a roof over a decent little two-bedder.