The Economic Development Directorate has triumphantly announced that they’ve flogged off 35 hectares of Ngunnawal for $36.25 million.
Spirited bidding by 11 registered parties representing both local and interstate companies has seen a 35.14ha site in Ngunnawal sell for $36.25 million.
The site is 18 kilometres from the CBD and only four kilometres from the Gungahlin Town Centre. It also provides good access to local schools and shopping facilities.
The auction conducted by Colliers International on behalf of the Land Development Agency will see the development of approximately 475 dwellings.
The winning bid came from Canberra Estate Consortium No 30, a subsidiary of local home building firm The Village Building Company, who had to fight off stiff competition from interstate consortiums that were also keen to secure the site.
“I am delighted that the Village Building Company was successful in purchasing this land,” said David Dawes, the Director General of the Economic Development Directorate.
“For a number of years now Village has specialised in providing homes at the affordable end of the market and their purchase of this land will mean that more Canberra families will be able to make their dream of homeownership a reality.
The development will be completed within three years and will feature a wide range of options for home buyers including townhouses, villas, duplexes, free standing homes and larger residential lots.
As part of this development Bob Winnel, the Village Chief Executive, has already committed to provide 122 two bedroom homes priced at around $335,000 and a further 102 three bedroom house and land packages that will be priced from $365,000 to $400,000.
In the next few months Village will also offer 131 blocks to the market. The blocks will range in size from 420sqm to 900sqm and will be priced from $220,000 to $355,000.
The estate will feature solar hot water to every home, and all landscaping will feature low water usage native plants.
All waste building materials from the site will also be recycled.
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What’s Your opinion?
Village Building Company goes over the odds to win Gungahlin dogfight
What isn’t mentioned in the press release is that the Casey Group Centre will be located directly opposite to top left corner of the yellow in the picture above.
While not much has been released about the Casey Group Centre, I am led to believe it will be similar to Weston/Erindale/Jamison & include an extension of the ACTION Intertown (now Rapid) network.
wooster said :
This is actually key to the affordability problem. State governments are very much reliant on stamp duty etc. as a source of revenue. As the monopoly supplier of greenfield land, the ACT government can maximise revenue from sales by limiting supply and jacking up prices.
The developers are doing very nicely as well, 475 dwellings on $36.25 million worth of land is $76,000 per block of land (on average), which they are going to sell for $220-$355k a piece. I can tell you it doesn’t cost $144k-$279k to develop the infrastructure for each block of land.
wooster said :
Forget the 500m2 block! The ones at Bonner are on average less than 150m2! They sell them for $83,000 and the house + land package costs you $307,000.
As for the property investors… If house/land prices plummet, they might have sell their second 4WD, but the ones that will be really farked will be those who are paying their whole monthly income on a stupendous mortgage on one of those glorified cardboard boxes.
Lego Land V2.0.
2 bedroom house, probably on a block around 500m2, for $335?
You’ve got to be kidding me if that’s affordable housing.
Certainly agree with Grumpy Old Fart, to an extent, but proffer a different view:
Due to the erosion of the ability of state and territory gov’ts to raise revenue through a century or so of reinterpretation of the Constitution has meant that gov’ts are more and more dependent on rates, stamp duty on transfers, etc, related to land sales.
Constrict supply, and you artificially raise UVs. Revenues are tied (largely) to UVs.
Add to that a population thats heavily invested in the current scheme (of needless housing restriction), and you won’t actually get any meaningful change via elections.
Canberra is by no means short of land. To argue otherwise is, frankly, ridiculous by intl standards.
Sadly, the only solution is to see a correction by broader changes in the market.
I for one, wont be sad to see the demise of the generation of ‘ self-anointed ‘property investors’ who’ve realised extraordinary returns, and as yet, have not seen the corollary falls that history teaches us will come again. Though perhaps sooner than many think.
Zeitgeist is a hell of a thing…
Skidbladnir said :
Thanks for that – appreciated!
Gungahlin Al said :
Ha – thanks Al.
There never will again be anything such as cheap housing under our current system. The simple reality is when you have multiple bidders vying for the same block the only people who will win are the Government and the developers.
As a society we have painted ourselves into a corner by placing value on the land in the ACT that we never actually own.
Maybe a better scheme would be to place say a $2,000 dollar a year repayment on the block for the 99 year lease period with a portion going to the Government and a portion to the land developer. Instead of facing horrendous mortgage repayments you just have a larger rates bill. This way instead of a one off lump payment the government has ongoing revenue stream over the entire lease period.
Short term loss for longterm income
This may be the only viable way that any newcomers can afford to build a house without being burdened with the cost of land they do not own. When you sell your house you only sell the house.
Yes the obvious problem is that you may not get the block you want bcause you are not actually buying it and the blocks may have to go into a lottery draw. The other problem is that you need to account for the stupidity and greed of folks given that they do not have to pay for the land the houses may become larger.
I for one would be happy to sell the block of land I am on back to the government and pay a reasonable annual lease fee for the land as it would have a dramatic impact on my mortgage.
Does that mean the new “affordable housing” limit will be $335,000 in the near future? That’s a 2% increase. Which isn’t much, but house prices hardly went up at all in the past year.
Anywho, I’m sure they’ll make a nice little profit and it will look as awful as all the other new developments in the area.
“I am delighted that the Village Building Company was successful in purchasing this land,” said David Dawes, the Director General of the Economic Development Directorate.”
No doubt – this is the trade-off for Winnell after “gifting” $1m to the Stanhope memorial gardens i.e. the arboretum. Nice little earner there, Bob.
Only $36 million? What a bargain! I wish regular people could buy land that cheap and not have to pay the extra land developer fees…
The Frots said :
ACTMAPi doesn’t allow hotlinking, so I have highlighted the block and emailed a copy to Jb.
The yellow is the block just sold.
PS: ACTMAPi isn’t hard to use, try it out.
The Frots said :
It is the missing chunk out of Ngunnawal, here:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Gungahlin+Australian+Capital+Territory,+Australia&ll=-35.162407,149.107368&spn=0.012665,0.016437&t=h&z=16
Finally get rid of that bloody pile of fill. Now about the other pile on the south of Franklin…
Blocks from $220,000!! WOW, that’s cheap [not]. I bet a 3 bed duplex with no yard will go for at least
$400,000+. Affordable housing at its best [LOL].
Are there any maps available of exactly where this is??