Mona Vale Strata Deal Clears Path for Inca’s $78m Housing Project

Plans for the 2679sq m site—about 280m from Mona Vale Beach and 380m from the town centre—comprise 44 market apartments and nine affordable rentals.

Five two-bedroom and four three-bedroom apartments would be managed by registered community housing provider Link Wentworth for at least 15 years.

Their inclusion turns a midrise site into a larger play.

Affordable housing makes up 15.5 per cent of proposed gross floor area, enough to attract the Housing SEPP’s 30 per cent bonus.

Height would rise from 22m to 28.6m, while floor-space ratio would increase from 2.2:1 to 2.86:1.

▲ A Plus Studio rendering of Dawn, Inca Property Group’s proposed 53-apartment project for Mona Vale.

A separate Pittwater Local Environmental Plan density control would ordinarily allow about 13 apartments on the site.

Inca has filed a clause 4.6 request for 53 apartments.

Dawn also qualifies for the state-significant development pathway as an infill affordable-housing project with a residential component valued above $75 million.

Inca managing director Josh Thompson said the pathway gave the team “real certainty to progress Dawn through to completion”.

“It allows us to acquire a one-off site, design it carefully and deliver the right offering for the suburb, assessed by the NSW Government’s planning department,” he said.

Plans comprise 24 two-bedroom and 29 three-bedroom homes pitched at owner-occupiers and downsizers, with a pool, gym, sauna and wellness area.

▲ The existing 18-apartment strata complex at 35-39 Darley Street East, Mona Vale, where Inca Property Group has filed plans for Dawn.

Private plunge pools are proposed for selected ground-floor and penthouse apartments.

Thompson said Inca’s recent north shore projects had sharpened its view of the downsizer market.

“The majority of buyers in our recent north shore projects have been downsizers, and we are learning exactly what this market is looking for,” he said.

Dawn continues Inca’s push across Sydney’s northern suburbs after the sold-out Tara on Park at Waitara and Ellis Residences, now under construction at St Ives.

Three basement levels would provide 124 parking spaces and 28 bicycle spaces, almost double the 63 spaces generated by Housing SEPP rates.

Plus Studio has designed Dawn, while interiors are by Tom Mark Henry and landscape architecture by Wyer & Co.

Inca’s construction arm GOP Constructions has been nominated as builder.

Plus Studio principal John Walsh said the design drew on “the layering of the Narrabeen Group rock formations along the coastline” and Mona Vale’s market-garden history.

▲ La Corniche, or Brock’s Folly, the early Mona Vale resort estate whose surviving remnant at 22 Darley Street East are opposite Inca’s Dawn site.

Dawn would replace 1970s apartment stock and sit opposite heritage-listed 22 Darley Street East, an early-1900s stone-and-brick villa linked to La Corniche, or Brock’s Folly.

A heritage impact report said the villa, recorded in 1907 estate material, is one of the few remnants of a former resort holding tied to Mona Vale’s early life as a northern beaches holiday destination.

George Sydney Brock built the estate around hopes for a tram extension from Manly, but the report said he was forced to auction the property after the line failed to proceed.

Early consultation for Inca's proposal attracted 41 submissions raising traffic, parking, basement construction, scale, solar access, privacy and affordable-housing concerns.

Planning material proposes removing 37 on-site trees and retaining five of 42 assessed in and around the property.

Thompson said Inca was “conscious of the impact these planning changes are having on established communities”.

Dawn would add to Mona Vale’s emerging apartment pipeline after IPM and Dexus secured June approval for a $95.4-million, three-building scheme at 159-167 Darley Street West, comprising 82 apartments including 10 affordable homes.