Our Director – Land shared a data-led case for why regional Victoria is outperforming the metro markets

Core Land Director, Kane Malcomson, featured as a guest panellist on The Urban Developer’s latest webinar, “Rise of the Regions: Where Are the Opportunities for Developers?”, held on 2 July 2026.

Hosted by The Urban Developer founder and CEO Adam Di Marco, the session brought together two of the country’s active regional developers to look beyond the headlines at where the strongest greenfield opportunities are emerging. Kane represented the Victorian market alongside Craig Purdy, Executive Director of Purdy Developments, who spoke to Queensland.

Drawing on Core Land’s track record of more than $7.5 billion in land sales – over $1 billion of it across regional Victoria, Kane delivered a data-led presentation on why the state’s regional markets are firing. He pointed to 2025 figures showing regional price growth outpacing metro right across Australia, with Victoria’s regions growing around 6% against 4.8% for metro Melbourne, and regional lot sales now making up close to 39% of all sales in the state.

“For over a decade, we’ve had a strong focus on regional Victoria. It’s a market we love working in,” Kane told the audience, noting that Core Land’s regional book has grown steadily since COVID to account for 20–25% of the business.

He highlighted standout markets, Ballarat volumes up 225% since 2024, Bendigo up 360%, and Geelong’s surrounding markets up 380%, while flagging Geelong as one to watch for potential undersupply if new growth areas are delayed. His core message to developers was the value of product diversity: “diversity of product is essential to for consistent sales volumes.”

Kane also gave a candid read on the challenges shaping regional feasibility, from civil contractor capacity and windfall gains tax to the absence of a small-lot housing code, and pinpointed planning certainty as the single biggest lever for unlocking further investment.

“If at a local and state government level we can provide more comfort around some of those time frames, I think we’ll see a lot more investment into the regions,” he said.

The full webinar is available on demand via The Urban Developer.

Core Land is Core Projects’ tier one greenfield development site agency, active across residential, medium density, industrial, retirement and strategic land parcels throughout metropolitan and regional Victoria.