The 92-hectare site was recently sold for $47 million. Oliver Hume Real Estate spokesman Peter Vassallo said the land was expected to be used for 1300 housing lots with an "end value" of more than $680 million.

The undisclosed buyer expects to start selling sites in the next three to five years.

Twelve owners around the Leakes Road diamond exchange combined seven farmlets to create the site.

Mr Vassallo said they had worked together to create a parcel of land that was commercially viable.

He said Melton would become Melbourne's major growth area as the region was transformed by upgraded public transport and the outer metropolitan ring road.

But the Melton property owners group Inc, which has appealed to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in an effort to have the rates increase repealed, said the sale was not an accurate representation of what other landowners were experiencing.

"In light of the fact that 430-plus landowners are fighting massive increases in rates within the shire of Melton, it seems more than a coincidence that this tale of windfall has appeared all over the media [with] the implication that all the landowners within the urban growth boundary are lucky millionaires," a group spokesman said.

Most landowners had "enormous struggles" on their hands with the "exorbitant" rate hikes, land tax and other costs, he said.

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