WA Government expects $250m from sale of 20 sites
KEY parcels of land including the Kaleeya and Shenton Park hospital sites, East Perth Power Station and Fremantle Police Station sites have been identified for sale by the WA Government as part of a program of property asset sales to help reduce the state’s debt.
Premier Colin Barnett said the 20 identified sites also includes Princess Margaret, Swan District and Woodside Maternity hospitals, as well as the Cottesloe School for the Deaf and large parcels of land held by the Department of Agriculture and Food and the Public Transport Authority.
“These pieces of land, all in the metropolitan area and from a range of portfolios, would be better transferred to private ownership to be redeveloped or restored,” the Premier said, adding that the land sales are expected to generate approximately $250 million.
“The sale process will vary from one piece of land to another with some sites ready to go to market now, and others that will take more work to get ready for sale.”
Shenton Park Hospital will be decommissioned next month with the majority of services being transferred to the new state-of-the-art Fiona Stanley Hospital.
The transfer of Kaleeya Hospital’s services will also see all obstetrics, gynaecology and neonatal services moving to Fiona Stanley Hospital; sub-acute services, such as aged care, to Fremantle Hospital; and elective surgery distributed between both hospitals.
Lands Minister Terry Redman said the potential sale of under-utilised land assets could generate high levels of revenue and contribute to reducing the State’s debt levels.
“These sites identified under the first round of land asset sales were all determined to be of surplus use to the State and we believe they will be of great interest to the private sector,” he said.
State Cabinet has also approved the establishment of a Land Asset Advisory Group to provide ongoing advice on the sale of property assets across the State.
Mr Redman said the Department of Lands was in the process of assessing all government-owned land assets to determine levels of efficiency and use.
He said the audit would assess thousands of government properties and he expected that within the next few months, several other government sites would be identified as appropriate for sale.
In August, the WA Government announced the sale of the Utah Point Bulk Handling Facility, Kwinana Bulk Terminal and the Perth Market Authority. The three assets are expected to generate between $1 billion and $2 billion.
Source: News Release Urbanalyst, 30 September 2014