Legacy Property is teaming with fellow residential heavyweight Billbergia for a two-tower skyscraper project on the “best site” in Sydney’s Macquarie Park.
The joint-venture partners are planning a $1-billion apartment development 17km north-west from the Sydney CBD—a massive upscale on previous proposals.
The duo had originally planned a 255-unit development for the 88 Waterloo Road site, which was limited to 20 storeys.
Now, fresh plans have been filed via the State Significant Development pathway which would more than triple the number of units to 858 across two towers of 60 and 52 storeys. The 88 Waterloo Road proposal was declared state significant by the Housing Delivery Authority (HDA) in August 2025. The plan is slated to go on public exhibition presently.
Long-term planning
Legacy Property took seven years to amalgamate the site, according to chief executive Matthew Hyder. “That process of putting big sites together isn’t something we’re afraid of, it involves listening and working closely with a lot of different owner-occupiers and investors,” Hyder told The Urban Developer. “You can amalgamate more quickly, but then you pay for it. For us, we have a very deep pipeline and this was a very consistent process.” Billbergia came in as joint-venture partners once the original application was moving through the council, according to Billbergia development director Saul Moran.
“When we looked at the site originally [as a joint venture], we felt that it was quite underutilised, and wanted to pitch a much larger proposition,” he said..
“Then, we saw the opportunity through the Housing Delivery Authority.”
Hyder said the project was “a great example of private industry responding to the state”, which had rezoned the Epping Road precinct, enabling developers to access much greater height and density.
This approach has borne fruit as developers flock to the City of Ryde LGA. “There are competing projects, but we’re really looking to lift the quality and be a benchmark and the pinnacle of Macquarie Park,” Moran told The Urban Developer. There proposal comprises a broad mix of apartment across the towers, including a small collection of townhouses, and studios to four-bedroom and larger homes.
“We felt it was really important to do a broad mix of units, something for everyone in the market,” Moran said. Designed by AJC architects, the four-level podium of the project would include shared dining, work-from-home spaces and games rooms, with a communal “urban backyard” on the podium rooftop including a pool and children’s play areas.
Macquarie Park precinct
No stranger to Macquarie Park, after worked on neighbouring projects, Hyder said the site was “one, if not the best apartment site in Sydney” and that the aim of the JV was to leverage that position. “It’s across the street from New South Wales’s second largest shopping centre, between two train stations—one of which is the new Metro—as well as being near a hospital and a university,” he said.
“Macquarie Park really has it all and to have this combination of factors is really unusual. So those incredible fundamentals and attributes are why we spent the enormous amount of time we did amalgamating the site.” Moran said that the transport links, and its role as an employment centre, were unparalleled. “There is a lot of product on the market there, but certainly with all those factors, we’re excited to be in the market.” In testament to the faith the JV has in the area, it made state and local contributions of $36 million to help support infrastructure development, he said.
HDA Pathway
The upscaled development is also testament to the ongoing efforts of the Housing Delivery Authority, Moran said. “We’re really excited to be working with the HDA on a number of projects, particularly the Macquarie Park project, because what the HDA has been good at is identifying good sites in good locations, next to transport, and being able to see uplifts that maybe the local councils or local politics weren’t or aren’t able to realise,” he said. Hyder said that the industry had welcomed initiatives such as the HDA, but it would take time for the process to see results.
“The HDA are looking at projects which are of real scale, and you want to get it right, especially when you’re doing real scale. It still might take 12 to 24 months to get approved. “But everyone in the industry applauds those efforts and initiatives, and they will make a difference.
They are exactly what is needed.” And the future looks bright for the Legacy and Billbergia partnership. “The partnership leverages the work we have put in to date amalgamating sites, the construction expertise Billergia has, and our combined development expertise,” Hyder said. “This will not be the last joint venture we do together.”
A sales campaign for 88 Waterloo is expected to be launched this year and subject to approvals, construction is planned to commence by 2027, ahead of completion in 2030.
