Land buyers camp out for best lots
A LARA West housing estate notched up its first five sales as soon as it opened for business, with buyers camping ahead of the weekend launch.
Developer Villawood Properties inked contracts with 11 purchasers at the 1100lot Coridale estate, which will feature a signature residents club — the first to receive planning approval in Geelong’s latest development frontier.
A couple camped overnight outside the Patullos Rd sales centre, while three more arrived at first light on Saturday to get the pick of the first release of 16 lots.
The arrival of campers, who also set up at Villawood’s Sanctuary estate in Armstrong Creek. reflects a return of confidence to the market, driven by low interest rates, firsthome buyer concessions and an easing of official lending restrictions.
Jason Reeve and Faith Wood were the first buyers at Coridale. “We’ve been waiting months,” Ms Wood said.
“We had a builder lined up already and we knew exactly what we wanted,” she said.
Other early buyers had looked around in Lara, but waited for Coridale on price.
Villawood Properties executive director Rory Costelloe said buyers had come back to the market.
“People have been waiting and waiting and waiting. We’ve got population growth happening here and people need to find a house.
“Everyone coming to Coridale were locals, from Lara.
“It’s a great show of support when locals starting camping out to buy.”
Coridale is one of three estates in the pipeline for the Lara West growth area. Sales have also started at Austin; however, it and Bisinella’s Lara Lakes Estate are both going through the planning process.
Mr Costelloe said Villawood didn’t want to release its Coridale lots until it had a planing permit and its engineering sorted, in order to minimise title delivery times.
“We’ll be starting construction around Christmas and we’ll be able to deliver titles next year and people can starting building houses by the end of next year.”
Villawood also chalked up sales at a new release at its Sanctuary estate at Armstrong Creek, where several buyers slept in their cars to ensure that they would be at the front of the queue.