A New South Wales real estate agent says it has been inundated with calls from Australian billionaires wanting to buy the largest landholding up for sale in the state's Southern Highlands.
Hume Coal, a subsidiary of the Korean-owned POSCO, is selling the 1,300 hectares of land near Berrima, en masse, after the Independent Planning Commission (IPC) rejected the company's plans to build a new underground coal mine in the area.
The job lot, which includes nine rural properties and the historic Mereworth House, is expected to sell for more than $60 million.
"It is a very, very strong market at the moment, particularly for [people of] high net worth," Ray White chief economist Nerida Conisbee said.
"The agent who is working on the property put the expression of interest out and within 30 minutes she'd had 30 phone calls … she's just been inundated."
Expressions of interest on the parcel of land are only being accepted for 10 days.
Billionaires aplenty
Ms Consibee said while it would be "quite difficult" for a foreign buyer to secure the sale due to the tight turnaround, there is no shortage of billionaires in the country.
"There's quite a lot of them in Australia at the moment because there are a lot of people involved in various sectors of the economy who have done very well during the pandemic," she said.
Ms Conisbee said the property was attractive to many prospective buyers due to its subdivision opportunities for minimum lot sizes of 40 hectares.
End of an era
The company is also selling the licences for 2,000 megalitres of ground water, equivalent to more than 2,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Hume Coal's project manager, Rod Doyle, said the sale of the land spells the end of the company's long and controversial presence in the region.
"Certainly we have no interest in taking forward the mine pan," Mr Doyle said.
"Selling it en masse will recoup a considerable sum of money that the company has already put in, well in excess of $200 million, to do the exploration program," he said.
