What a 50-Year Planning Saga Tells Us About Housing Supply, Land Banking and Regional Growth
After more than five decades of delays, disputes and dormant approvals, one of the largest residential developments on the New South Wales North Coast has finally reached a milestone many thought might never come.
The Kings Forest Estate, a near-900-hectare site just south of Kingscliff, has released its first residential lots for sale. In time, the master-planned community is expected to house more than 11,000 people and increase the population of the Tweed Shire by roughly 10 per cent.
For a region under sustained housing pressure, that matters. But the long road to this point also raises bigger questions about planning systems, land banking and how Australia actually turns approved land into built homes.
A site decades in the making
Kings Forest was originally rezoned for residential development in the 1980s, when the Tweed Coast was far quieter and far cheaper than it is today. At the time, the land was largely used for farming and bore the visible scars of earlier sand mining.
Over the years, the site passed through multiple owners. It was held by a Japanese company in the 1990s, became entangled in court proceedings through the 2000s, and finally received concept approval from the NSW Government in 2010.
Despite that approval, construction did not begin.
Instead, the project entered what many local leaders now openly describe as a classic case of land banking – where land increases in value through rezoning and approvals, but is not brought to market in a timely way.
Why the delays mattered
According to Tweed Shire Council General Manager Troy Green, the delays had real consequences.
While approvals sat idle, the council moved ahead with major infrastructure upgrades, including water and wastewater treatment plants, to support future growth across Kings Forest and nearby Cobaki.
The estimated cost to council was around $130 million.
Thirteen years later, the first lots are only now being released.
For councils, this creates a serious financial mismatch. Infrastructure must be funded early, but housing delivery – and the rate base that helps pay for it – can lag by more than a decade.
“It didn’t matter how quickly we got approvals out,” Green said. “It wasn’t translating to on-the-ground development.”
Enter Stockland – and a fresh chapter
In August, the site was acquired by Stockland from Leda Holdings for a reported $620 million.
For the market, this was the turning point.
Stockland has confirmed the staged release of housing, starting with 148 lots, alongside plans for schools, a town centre, sporting fields and supporting infrastructure.
Project director Alex Koerber described Kings Forest as critical to improving housing supply on the Tweed Coast, where demand has consistently outpaced new land releases.
This shift from dormant approval to active delivery is exactly what planners and builders across the country are watching closely.
Land banking under the spotlight
The Kings Forest story has reignited calls for reform around how rezoned land is treated.
At present, once land is rezoned, there is often no obligation to develop it within a defined timeframe. The uplift in land value is realised immediately, while housing delivery can remain optional.
Former Tweed mayor and Tweed Chamber of Commerce president Warren Polglase noted that each owner of Kings Forest made a profit as the land changed hands, even while no homes were built.
“The winners,” he said, “have been those who have been part of the process to get where it is today.”
From a builder’s perspective, this highlights a structural issue. Supply constraints are not always about approvals or skills. Sometimes, they are about land simply not being released.
The cost of waiting: housing pressure on the Tweed
The impact of delayed land release is visible across the Tweed Coast.
In nearby estates such as Salt and Casuarina, vacant land has all but disappeared. Blocks that once sold for around $700,000 are no longer available, while completed homes now regularly sell for $3–5 million.
Demand has surged as interstate migration, lifestyle buyers and retirees continue to target the region. Without new land supply, prices have done what prices always do when demand outstrips availability.
For builders, this has narrowed opportunity. Fewer blocks mean fewer starts, higher entry prices for clients and greater pressure on margins.
A different kind of development
Kings Forest is not a traditional suburban sprawl.
According to council planning director Denise Galle, the estate will include a wide mix of lot sizes and housing types, including:
• Smaller 300-square-metre lots
• Narrow 8–10-metre lots
• Boundary-to-boundary housing options
There will also be a strict design code governing building form, materials and environmental impact. One of the more unusual rules includes a ban on domestic cats, aimed at protecting koalas in a nearby nature reserve.
From a construction perspective, this signals a shift toward denser, more controlled residential outcomes, even in regional settings.
What this means for builders and suppliers
For builders operating on the NSW North Coast and South East Queensland fringe, Kings Forest represents both opportunity and adjustment.
Large, staged developments favour builders who can operate at scale, manage compliance-heavy design codes and deliver consistent outcomes over many years.
Suppliers and trades will need to align with tighter specifications and longer-term programs, rather than one-off projects.
At the same time, the diversity of lot sizes opens the door to new product typologies, smaller footprints and more efficient construction models.
The broader lesson
Kings Forest is finally moving, and that is good news for housing supply.
But its history also offers a cautionary tale.
Rezoning alone does not deliver homes. Approvals do not guarantee construction. And infrastructure investment without delivery timelines exposes councils and communities to long-term risk.
As governments push ambitious housing targets, the focus must shift from how fast land is approved to how reliably it is built on.
For builders, planners and policymakers alike, Kings Forest is a reminder that housing supply is not just about ambition. It is about execution.
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