Australian family says no to millions to retain dream home, gets sandwiched by high-density housing

A family in suburban Sydney, Australia, has reportedly refused millions of dollars from developers so that they can remain on a massive strip of land they own and retain their dream house.

It’s similar to the Geylang story we did slightly over a year ago – where two terrace house owners refused to sell their homes to condominium developers. Staying put in their “holdout houses”, they have to be squeezed or “sandwiched” between condos – namely Noma (along Guillemard Road) and La Brisa (along Lorong 28 Geylang).

Similarly, the Australian Zammit family at 72 Hambledon Road, The Ponds (near Quakers Hill) had remained defiant despite all of their old neighbours selling up and moving out.

Their home sits on 1.99 hectares (214,201 sq ft) of land and has a breathtaking 200-metre-long driveway that cuts through a lawn to the front door of their house. Seen from the air, it looks like a strip of greenery in a sea of high-density suburban housing.

The Zammits insist they’re a very private family and had refused to say how much they were offered for their land. Neighbouring blocks of land had been known to have been sold at AUD$239/sqm (S$23 psf) in 2012, which would value the Zammits’ property at about AUD$4.75m (S$4.8m) 10 years ago.

Today, if the Zammits sell their land, a local developer could squeeze 40 new AUD$1 million homes there (which means the Zammits are potentially sitting on between AUD$40-50m). The married couple, who are in their 50s, run a trucking company and has a giant shed on the same property to house their vehicles.

They moved to what used to be agricultural farmland more than 16 years ago and had probably seen how the estate changed with modern housing over time. The one thing they do treasure is the openness of their estate compared to the little gardens their neighbours have.

Their current home consists of more than five bedrooms, a triple garage for family cars and a makeshift basketball court. Their massive lawn requires about two and half hours to mow (tasked to their young son) and a 750-metre perimeter fence demarcates their land from neighbours’ cookie-cutter houses.

One good thing for some of their new neighbours though is the land forms a cul-de-sac for some of the roads, allowing for much-appreciated privacy.

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Would you hold out on a home for sentimental value despite million-dollar offers? Let us know in the comments section below or on our Facebook post.

If you found this article helpful, check out Owners of Geylang terraces refuse to sell to condo developer, becomes ‘Up’ in real life and Family man walks away from HDB resale due to S$50k COV, used it to buy and renovate condo instead.

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