Bidding for WestConnex

Sydney Motorway Corporation was established in 2014 by the NSW Government with the main goal of delivering and operating WestConnex.

WestConnex is a predominantly underground motorway stretching 33 kilometres and Australia’s largest infrastructure undertaking, with an estimated cost of $16.8 billion.

The overall project incorporates works including the M4 widening; M4 East; a new M5; the M4-M5 Link Tunnels; the M4-M5 Link Rozelle Interchange; and King Georges Road Interchange upgrade.

A consortium of infrastructure specialists required our expertise at JLL to support its bid to take over the role of the corporation to build the motorway.

In particular, it required us to identify the most likely locations along the motorway where population and jobs growth would occur based on our observations of residential and employment land use development.

At JLL, we have tracked key real estate markets since 1970 and this has remained our core advantage in providing government and non-government clients with strategic consulting, advice and growth forecasts.

In this instance, our housing capacity analysis had to factor in changes to residential planning laws, Sydney’s residential development cycle, and the effect of these on housing occupancy in the short to medium term.

To determine future residential demand, we reviewed historic population and development growth rates across Sydney, paying close attention to the drivers of this growth, and combining this with detailed analyses of each precinct.

Meanwhile, our review of jobs growth took into account the multiple uses for employment land use development including the key uses of office, retail, industrial and education.

Ultimately, we were able to meet our client’s ambition with a highly detailed assessment which outlined the potential for growth and strong investment strategy in a large swathe of Sydney and its implications for WestConnex.

The motorway is expected to complete in 2024.