Fishermans Bend has seen a dramatic increase in land values since it was rezoned in 2012. Credit:James Boddington It was the most contentious decision by a Victorian planning minister for decades. The widely criticised move triggered a dramatic increase in land values and a development frenzy of 46 apartment towers – some reaching more than 60 storeys – that have been proposed or approved in the precinct since January 2014. In October 2014, CBRE commercial property director Mark Wizel​ estimated land values had increased up to 500 per cent since the rezoning. For sites where developers have won planning approval for high-rise towers, the increase is greater still.

Harry Stamoulis (left) with former planning minister Matthew Guy and former Premier Dennis Napthine Confidential briefings to Mr Guy, obtained by The Sunday Age, reveal proposed boundaries for the precinct were drawn up behind closed doors as early as March 2011, shortly after the minister made a broad statement about future redevelopment of an unspecified area he called Fishermans Bend. The biggest winners from the rezoning were those who already held property, or were in the process of buying into, Fishermans Bend. Andrew Burnes and his travel company, Australian Outback Travel, donated at least $150,000 in the past 15 years. Credit:Damian White Among them is Liberal party honorary treasurer Andrew Burnes, a close friend of former Federal treasurer Joe Hockey.

Mr Burnes and his travel company, Australian Outback Travel, donated at least $150,000 to the Liberals in the past 15 years, including $80,000 in the year 2013-2014. John Ayre is a shareholder of ULR Automotive, which donated $25,000 to the Liberals in 2013. He paid just over $7 million for new offices for his business at Laconia House at 179 Normanby Road, near the West Gate freeway in March 2012, the most expensive of about 80 land acquisitions in Fishermans Bend in the 16-month period between the drawing of the boundaries and the July rezoning. Agents estimate the current value of his Normanby Road property at more than $20 million. High rise development is allowed on the site and a permit for such development would dramatically increase the property's value. Nearby, a two-tower project with 525 apartments that was given planning approval in May is now a project worth more than $130 million. Illustration: Matt Golding.

One-time Liberal activist and current BRW rich lister Harry Stamoulis was negotiating a $24 million purchase of a large industrial site in South Melbourne when Mr Guy rezoned the area in 2012. Mr Stamoulis' proposal for 258 townhouses was the first to win planning approval from Mr Guy. Agents now value his Ingles Street property at more than $60 million. Others with Liberal links had bought into the area years prior to the rezoning, but were active party donors around the period the boundaries were drawn and gazetted. Auto dealer John Ayre is a member of a consortium proposing a $1 billion apartment complex on former Crown land at 150 Turner St and at 351 Ingles Street in Port Melbourne. The first site was Crown land gifted to the group in 2003 and they paid a mere $1.5 million for the second site in the 1990s; agents now value them around $80 million. Mr Ayre is a shareholder of ULR Automotive, which donated $25,000 to the Liberals in 2013. He personally donated $13,500 in 2013-2014.

In the mid-1990s BRW rich lister and Liberal donor John Higgins paid $936,000 for a site at 297 Ingles Street that is now worth an estimated $15 million. He donated $25,000 to the Liberal party in 2013. Some party donors bought in to Fishermans Bend after the rezoning, but have made significant paper profits under flexible height limits introduced by Mr Guy, now leader of the Victorian Liberal Party. Notable among those donors is developer and Liberal supporter Bill McNee's company MaxVic Holdings, which paid $10.1 million for a Johnson Street site in 2014. In May, this year McNee's development company VicLand won state government approval to build more than 1300 apartments across four towers on the site under rules established by Mr Guy. It is now seeking to "flip" the site for an expected price of more than $70 million – a seven-fold increase on the purchase price.

Mr McNee's VicLand corporation donated $150,000 to the Liberals between 2012 and 2014. Other Liberal donors to make windfalls include property veterans like the Buxton family (MAB Corporation) who had been sitting on low-value industrial land in South Melbourne for decades. After paying $483,000 for a site in Gladstone Street site in the 1990s, MAB sold the site with a planning permit for three apartment towers in April this year for a price believed to be $37 million. At the time the rezoning decision was made, there was no binding master plan, height limits, or any mechanism to capture any of the rise in property values to ultimately pay for the infrastructure and services of a residential community that could be large as the City of Ballarat. Nor was there a strategy or funds for decontamination, transport, open space or affordable housing.

Instead, the rise in land values delivered billions of dollars in windfall to landowners. Senior planners remain bemused as to why the large-scale rezoning at Fishermans Bend occurred when government-sponsored Docklands next door remained unfinished and planning had already started for publicly-owned sites in North Melbourne and E Gate in West Melbourne. Property industry sources are adamant that one of the reasons was the influence of some long-standing landholders and speculators who are also Liberal Party supporters. Property values were further inflated by the minister's invitation to developers to lodge applications for projects anywhere within the precinct's wide boundaries (rather than release sites in stages as backed by many experts), and before any planning controls were in place. Mr Guy has repeatedly refused to be interviewed by Fairfax Media about his Fishermans Bend decision. So too has he refused to answer a specific questions about his actions.

Instead he issued a written statement: "Melbourne is growing by nearly 2000 people every week and Fishermans Bend is a vital part of meeting these housing needs and that is why it was one of our election policies in 2010." In fact, Fishermans Bend was not one of the Liberals' election policies in 2010. In April, Labor planning minister Richard Wynne said he would "recast" plans for Fishermans Bend – a move he said reflected the high level of government, community and property industry concern about the project. But he now faces the difficult decision of how far to go given a string of approvals have already been granted and land values have been geared to the premium of high rise residential development. Mr Burnes is overseas and did not return calls or emails. Mr Higgins, Mr Ayre and Mr Stamoulis did not return calls.

The Sunday Age is not suggesting any inside knowledge or wrongdoing on the part of any of the landholders. In October, an Andrews government-appointed expert committee report found the overnight creation of Fishermans Bend was "misguided" and that the rezoning of such a major urban renewal area ahead of detailed strategic planning was "unprecedented in the developed world in the 21st century".