Sydney, May 4, 2026, 04:04 (AEST)
Mirvac Group and Lendlease have emerged as front-runners to redevelop the former Visy glass site on Brisbane’s South Brisbane riverfront, the Courier-Mail reported, putting two large Australian property developers at the sharp end of a state-run contest for a rare inner-city parcel. The newspaper said Economic Development Queensland had not formally confirmed the shortlist, and reported that Dubai-based Sobha Realty and Azizi Developments remained in contention.
The timing matters because the site is big, close and politically useful. EDQ describes it as 7.1 hectares of prime riverfront land, 1.3 kilometres from Brisbane’s central business district, with 400 metres of river frontage and potential for more than 4,000 homes in a mixed-use precinct.
The process has moved beyond a broad pitch to developers. EDQ’s timetable lists market proposals in March 2026, proposal development and planning through March to December, and vacant possession from March 2027, when Visy is expected to complete its move to Yatala.
For Queensland, the project is a housing-supply test as much as a property deal. The state launched the market process after dropping an earlier plan to use the site as an Olympic broadcast centre, and said the Kurilpa planning instrument would streamline approvals and allow building heights up to the flight-path cap of 274 metres.
For Mirvac, a win would deepen its Brisbane exposure while it pushes its living and mixed-use pipeline. In an April 23 update, Mirvac reported 1,896 residential sales in the financial year to date, up 28%, and said pre-sales — contracted homes or lots not yet settled — rose 13% to about A$1.8 billion; it also kept FY26 operating earnings guidance at 12.8 to 13.0 cents per security and a 9.5-cent distribution, or cash payout. Chief Executive Campbell Hanan said Mirvac had “good visibility of earnings” and was “on track to achieve guidance in FY26,” and added that residential sales had “remained resilient” in Queensland, Western Australia and parts of New South Wales.
The market has not treated Mirvac as a quick rebound trade. Its Sydney-listed securities closed at A$1.71 on May 1, up 0.6% on the day but still close to a 52-week low of A$1.69, with a market value of about A$6.73 billion.
Mirvac has not announced a Visy development award through its own ASX releases. Its investor site showed a May 1 Appendix 3Z relating to former director Christine Bartlett as the latest filing, followed by the April 23 third-quarter operational update.
But a shortlist is not a contract. Mirvac’s own risk disclosures flag interest rates, inflation, access to capital, project delivery, partner appetite, supply-chain costs and planning approvals as issues that can affect returns; a riverfront precinct with housing, retail and public space would face most of those before construction starts.
The prize is clear enough. A successful bid would give Mirvac another large, visible project in a city where governments want more homes on well-connected land, while raising the execution bar for a developer already balancing residential sales, capital partners and higher building costs.
