Land up for sale at old Princess Margaret Hospital site, with developers set to build 1000 apartments

The first two lots of land once home to Princess Margaret Hospital are now open for offers by developers, but homes won’t likely be ready for years according to the Planning and Lands Minister John Carey. The 1909 Subi East site in Subiaco, next to Thomas Street and Hay Street, is expected to bring around 1000 apartments to the market once fully complete, with the first two lots set to deliver 340 units. According to Mr Carey, the first two lots, consisting of a 17-storey and 11-storey build, will likely have development applications this year, with construction starting next year. He estimated it would take two or three years for the first residents to move in, and up to a decade for the entire precinct development to be complete. An unspecified amount of the build will also be dedicated to social and affordable housing. Mr Carey touted the site for its proximity to schools, services, the CBD as well as already being connected to public transport. As a former hospital site remediation works have already been completed to rid the land of medical and asbestos contamination. Mr Carey said the site was now ready for residential properties, while still maintaining two heritage buildings for public use. “There are challenges obviously, being a former hospital site this did have a level of contamination, including medical and asbestos, but we’ve worked through that,” he said. “As you can see, we’ve really created a beautiful plan and a neighbourhood for future apartment development. ‘We’ve also kept two heritage buildings, the first is the boiler room, and the second is the outpatient clinic, and we’re currently working through the future purposes of those.” Under pressure from rising rents, soaring house prices and forced to defend his governments in action on projects which could have delivered more than 1300 new homes into the market, Mr Carey took aim at the opposition claiming it was anti-apartments. “One of the classic arguments, particularly made by Liberals and those who oppose apartments, is there will be an overburden on traffic, and the sky will fall in,” he said. “Can we acknowledge around the world, there are high density cities that have extraordinary amounts of people living close to the city, etc. “This is already well serviced by a number of bus routes and of course as population grows, we continue to invest in transport and bus services, so I’m very confident and as part of the planning system, we consider those impacts.” Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas said it was a baseless accusation. “What is the basis for him saying that? John Carey wants to make statements with absolutely no validity or foundation,” he said. “The only thing I’ll say in response to that, not wishing to dignify it any more than the indignity that it deserves already, but on what basis does he say that?” The build comes as projects around the State face delays in connecting utilities, holding up construction. However a Water Corporation spokesperson sad there were no delays to the Subiaco project.