1000 blocks sold in a year
VILLAWOOD Properties and Warralily coincidentally both sold 509 lots in the Armstrong Creek growth corridor last year and are off to a strong start again this year.
Warralily’s new land release, Warralily Grange, sold 50 lots in its first weekend on the market last month while more than 25 care workers have taken advantage of Villawood Properties’ care worker scheme.
Warralily’s new land release, in Mt Duneed, will consist of 870 lots, a future P-6 school, shops, ovals and the 7500sq m Grange Village Park.
Estate manager Ben Stewart said the bumper lead-up to the land release saw more than 320 homebuyers express their interest.
“Due to the level of excitement for Grange we released both Stage 1 and Stage 2a to keep up with demand,” Mr Stewart said.
With Warralily’s existing Armstrong Creek precincts already 70 per cent sold, the Warralily Grange timeline was brought forward to match market needs.
“2017 was a record-breaking year for Warralily with 509 sales and, with our Coast and Central precinct nearly selling out, 2018 is experiencing continued price growth,” Mr Stewart said.
Meanwhile, Villawood Properties also recorded a total of 509 sales in its Armstrong and Sanctuary precincts last year.
Its care worker program has got off to a great start with more than 25 lots already sold.
The care sector package was initially only available at the Sanctuary estate but its popularity has prompted the developer to partition special lots for care workers at its flagship Armstrong estate as well.
Villawood Properties executive director Rory Costelloe said affordability was a growing issue among homebuyers and he was keen to ensure Geelong’s care sector was not kept out of the market.
“Housing affordability is a real issue and we want our nurses, firefighters and teachers to be able to build their family homes,” Mr Costelloe said.
Midwife Tessa Clark and partner Josh Cameron moved from Bendigo to Geelong for work and have bought in Villawood’s Sanctuary estate for its location, access to facilities and affordability.
“We were in the initial stages of looking and they told us they had a block set aside for us as I am a care worker, otherwise it was sold out," Ms Clark said. “They gave us 48 hours to decide so we went for it.
“We chose this area because it is close to the beach and Geelong, it is a nice lifestyle.”