Perth Waterfront Masterplan Design Concept for the Revitalization of the Waterfront Real Estate

Swan Makeover - Your Perth Waterfront Real Estate Revitalization - Don't Miss the Boat

In 1829 when Captain James Stirling rounded the narrows, he realised the bank of the Swan River near Mounts Bay was the place for a new city. Long before that the Nyoongar also knew this was a special place. In the 20th century the city of Perth turned its back on the river and both the river and the city have suffered as a consequence. Today, by reshaping our city around Stirling’s landing place we are reconnecting our city with the Swan River, with its natural and cultural heritage. This is the revitalization of the Perth waterfront district along the Swan River. The vision is the design the Perth waterfront district and divide it into several distinct sections that includes the Esplanade Square. In the new esplanade precinct there are two major public places: Perth Waterfront Esplanade Square and Esplanade Circle. The Square enhances and captures the bustle of the big city. Lively arcades lead from the Esplanade Train Station and into St. George’s square. As bit as Melbourne’s Federation Square and with a huge cyber screen with crowds enjoying live performances and more, the Esplanade Square will become Perth’s focal community point along the waterfront district for large celebrations and more. Esplanade Circle in the vision of the new development Perth waterfront project is about the beauty of the river. It’s as if the design for the new Esplanade Circle has given the old city arms which reach out from the old Esplanade along Perth’s waterfront district and embraces the Swan River. These arms wrap around the large circular body of water and like no other place in Perth’s waterfront community, make a grand civic place as the gateway between Perth and the Swan River. Same size as Sydney’s circular quay, the Perth Esplanade Circle will have a promenade to shop, wine, dine, people watch, rest or play. There will be a five star hotel, public sky garden, museum and a spectacular bridge catering for everyone both day and night. The water will be choreographed with lighting effects too.

Perth Waterfront Esplanade Circle, Square, William Street, Gardens and Mounts Bay Condo Developments

The William Street district in Perth’s Waterfront district community project has been neglected for many years and is now little more than an on-ramp to the freeway. But through the revitalization of the real estate district along the waterfront community of Perth, William Street will have two new train stations on it and because of links to Northbridge, the CBC and the Swan River, it is becoming an important axis through Perth. The southern end of William Street will be revitalized and will have a pedestrian friendly streetscape with new iconic public building under water in addition to a new train and bus system as well as waterfront boat system. It will link to the Perth Convention Centre. The gardens: directly adjacent to the new Esplanade redevelopment area is the existing heritage precinct of Government House and the Supreme Court Gardens. Just as these gardens are a high quality example of 19th century parkland, the new Esplanade along Perth Waterfront district revitalization vision will be a high quality example of 21st century urbanism. The old and the new can live happily side by side, each enhancing each other. The Supreme Gardens will provide a large major concert and gathering place for people along the Perth waterfront community. A boardwalk and mooring area for boats will also be added. Mounts bay district in the waterfront Perth real estate revitalization project: the population of Perth is expected to double in the next 40 years and the city has already spawled a long way. Wherever possible, and in a manner compatible with existing communities, Perth waterfront has to achieve a high rate of residential infill real estate development if it is to become more sustainable. The Perth waterfront will have residential condo development along the Circle as well as the region around Mounts Bay. Sustainable housing along Perth waterfront district will also create a healthier Swan River and urban forest. A wide public boardwalk and a new public beach, cable car to Kings Park will be other developments in the Perth Waterfront vision. The major hub of all new presales condo homes and condominium residences will be built around the Kings Park district. Other Perth Australia real estate developments are located here.

Last week to have your say on the Perth Waterfront Real Estate Makeover by LandCorp

It certainly seems that the release of the Perth waterfront masterplan design concept for the State Government's Perth Waterfront project has created a community buzz! LandCorp has been inundated with feedback - most of it strongly in favour of plans to revitalise the Perth foreshore by developing a community hub that will be the pride of generations to come. To date there have been 32,500 visits to the website: www.perthwaterfront.com.au; with more than 19,000 of these recorded as first time visitors. It is through the Perth Waterfront website that most feedback has been submitted. With the closing date for public feedback on the design concept just around the corner - March 25 2008 - we invite you to forward this email to anyone who may be interested in having their say. Submissions will be reviewed and evaluated over the next couple of months to help LandCorp real estate developers refine and shape the development as the Waterfront Perth revitalization project moves into the next steps. Apart from the website, submissions can also be made by email or by post: Perth Waterfront Project, LandCorp, Locked Bag 5, Perth Business Centre, Perth, 6849, Western Australia. We will keep you informed of progress!

New thinking for a new generation at the Perth Waterfront Property Vision

We have some new postings on our waterfront real estate Perth website that discuss the Perth Waterfront masterplan in more detail. Do remember that the design concept for the Perth waterfront makeover vision and design is only to provide an idea of how the waterfront area could be best utilised - it is likely that the actual designs of the buildings will change. To see the design concept come to life view the computer generated fly-through of the project. Like to learn more about the thinking behind the Perth Waterfront design concept? View a presentation from the Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Western Australia, Richard Weller, a member of the Ashton Raggatt McDougall design consortium. Want to hear what other community and industry members have to say? Click here.

And finally ... allaying a taxpayer concern
A small number of emails have been received that suggest funding for the Perth Waterfront development would be better channeled into health, education or other areas. We thought we should take the opportunity to reiterate that the project is intended to be self-funding, with development costs for the project at the Perth Waterfront district supported through the sale of the development sites. So it's designed to be a win-win for WA!

Why this much real estate development along the beautiful Perth waterfront and why now?

There are several reasons why LandCorp has put together a proposal to revitalize the Perth waterfront district that includes: provide over 25,000 jobs during the construction and subsequent management of the waterfront community as well as injecting new pre-sales and preconstruction condo development for five thousand new residents around the district in addition to a five star hotel that can accommodate up to 1,000 guests, boosting tourism. The Perth Waterfront will ensure the future growth of the central city. In particular there is a lack of larger sites in the CBD to cater for the next generation of major office buildings beyond those currently planned. Businesses such as restaurants require a permanent year-round population to trade successfully, hence the need for residential and hotel accommodation along the newly revitalized Perth Waterfront community is essential as well as world class facilities to appeal to metro, regional, national and international audiences.

What are the main land uses?

The Perth waterfront district will be a mixed-use real estate development. The waterfront development will be a gathering place - a central hub - for the people of WA and of Perth. The ground level will be highly public and provide opportunities for active uses including retail, services, hospitality (restaurants, cafes, bars, and short stay/hotel accommodation), cultural, leisure and recreational pursuits. The project along the waterfront of Perth and the Swan River will encourage the development real estate of the next generation of office buildings through environmentally sustainable design. This will enable the central business area to grow in a way that includes office and business as a part of a rich activity mix rather than in separate zones. The proposed inner city living of the Perth waterfront condo presales development component would take the form of apartments presales in Perth, to boost the inner city residential population and help enliven the city. The Perth CBD is under-populated compared to other cities - this project would add 5,000 people to the current central population of 12,500.

What are the time frames for the Waterfront Perth development?

The timeline for this massive undertaking for the revitalization of the waterfront district of Perth includes: The statutory approval phase would likely take 36 months, however efforts will be made to shorten that timeframe. Stage 1A development real estate along Perth’s waterfront starts with the Esplanade area in mid 2011, together with an expanded Supreme Court Gardens. Stage 1B is the main waterfront circle at the waterfront of Perth and Swan River constructed between mid 2012 and mid2013. Stage 2 - Mounts Bay would be developed from 2016. A full build-out is expected to take 15 - 20 years depending upon economic conditions at the time.

Sydney Waking From Real Estate Slumber

The Sydney housing real estate market is showing signs of increased buyer interest and price growth, according to the property analyst CPM Research.

Sydney was demonstrating a litany of positive signs, CPM managing director John Wakefield said. He cited five signs of life from the Sydney property market:

1. The number of listing climbed to more than 1600 in March, the highest since the end of 2003.
2. In the same month, $926 million worth of property real estate changed hands, again a level not seen for more than three years.
3. On a month-to-month basis, the median house price in Sydney increased 34 pre cent to $791,000 during March (although on an annual basis there was still a fall of 7 per cent).
4. The median unit price was up 1 per cent in the year to March and jumped 21 per cent over the month.
5. Auction clearance rates hit 68 per cent in Sydney’s real estate market in March, the highest they have been since September 2003.

“It is early days but it appears that we may be enterting a new phase of price growth, pushing prices back to boom levels,” Wakefield said.

At the same time, the Real Estate Institute of New South wals (REINSW) said the residential vacancy rate in Sydney hit a record low of 1.2 per cent in March, with the inner city even lower at 1.1 per cent.

“The inner city seriously has the no vacancy sign up,” REINSW vice president Steve Martin said. “Tenants are too scared to move because finding something else would be too hard.” For some of the latest Australia presales apartment condominium towers in Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne, visit here. They are also called 'off-the-plan' property developments as home buyers will purchase these homes in pre-construction phase.

When a home becomes a rental

Australia based information from the API published in Dec 2006 that includes a question and answer from real estate professionals regarding renting and rental properties.

Question
We purchased a house in Scarborough (Queensland) in September 2003 for $400,000 and lived in the house until December 2005 as our principal place of residence (PPOR). In the first 15 months (up to December 2004) we spent approximately $75,000 on replacement and renovations (windows, doors, plumbing, electrical, insulation, driveway, fence, landscaping, floor coverings, painting, roof etc.) and another $25,000 on the construction of a large timber deck.

We intend to keep this real estate property for the long term, although from January 2006 we moved and have been renting out this property. It will remain as an investment real estate property for the foreseeable future, although we may move back into this house in 10 years or so.

We intend to claim interest on the remaining $200,000 mortgage from January 2006 onwards and we’d also like to know if we can claim depreciation on all or some of these items starting from the 2005 -06 financial year and beyond.

1. Could you please confirm if it’s valid to claim interest and depreciation?
2. Assuming it’s okay to claim both, does depreciation of these items have to commence from the year the money is expended or can depreciation start, say, two years later (as per our scenario)?
3. If we haven’t kept receipts for all items, can we still claim if we engage a quantity surveyor for a full estimate of all the works?
4. Finally, we have a small (but growing) investment property portfolio and don’t really need to claim the depreciation at this stage. If we can and decide to claim these expenses over the next several years, will we end up just paying a larger capital gains tax (CGT) bill when we eventually sell the property in 10 or 15 year’s time?

Answer
Yes, it’s entirely valid for you to claim interest on the loan used to buy the Scarborough property and yes, you’re also legally entitled to claim the depreciation on the original property along with the renovations undertaken by you while you lived in the property. The depreciation starts at the time the item of plant or equipment is first installed ready for use. However, the claims on your tax start at the time the property is first available for rent.

A quantity surveyor will estimate the depreciation that you’re legally entitled to claim, and they’ll do this whether you have receipts or not. The depreciation should be claimed each year as you go and shouldn’t be ignored. If the depreciation triggers tax losses for you, those losses will carry forward to offset against future income and capital gains.

Claiming depreciation shouldn’t have much of an impact on the capital gain made on the sale of an investment property. By the way, when a home is converted to a real estate investment property, it’s vitally important for you to determine the current market value at the time of the change of the use. This is because, for CGT purposes, you’re deemed to have bought the house from yourself at its real estate market value at the time the house ceased to be your PPOR and became your investment real estate property. So, given that there may have been some growth in the value of your real estate property while you were living in it you can lock in some tax-free gains now by either: obtaining a sworn valuation or getting three real estate agents to give you an appraisal and then taking the average as the market value.

Dale Gatherum-Goss for API Magazine

Should you sell or rent? The ongoing debate of selling property for capital gains versus keeping them for positive cashflow

Part 2 of this article published in the Australia Property Investor Magazine.

You don’t need to sell to access your gains in real estate

Lomas says people think they have to sell real estate to release the capital gains they’ve made. “But your unrealised gains are worth just as much- probably more, because you don’t have to pay CGT (capital gains tax),” she says. “The gains are there for you to leverage against. You don’t have to realise the gains to leverage into more real estate property or another kind of investment. If people are thinking of selling because they want to cash for seomthing, they would be better to get that cash by borrowing against their equity – although it depends on many variables.”

A comparison of two hypothetical scenarios shows how home equity is more powerful in creating wealth if good property is retained rather than traded. Take two real estate investors who buy similar investment properties for $300,000, one who plans to use the equity build-up to buy more properties, the other seeking to trade the property. For the purposes of the exercise, let’s assume values rise 10 per cent a year andignore buying costs (identical for both real estate investors).

After two years both investors in real estate buy again. Investor A ha $63,000 equity and uses that as leverage to buy a second property for $400,000. Investor B realises his $63,000 equity build-up by selling (and paying around $25,000 in fees and taxes) before buying a better property for $400,000.

After another two years, both real estate investors buy again using their respective strategies. Compare their situations after another two years (i.e. six years after each made the initial purchase):

Investor A owns three investment properties worth around $1.72 million, with total equity of $521,000. Investor A is well-positioned to buy more property.

Investor B has one property worth $605,000 with equity of $105,000. Along the way, Investor B paid out $60,000 in fees and taxes by selling and is about to lose more, because the strategy in real estate property investments calls for Investor B to sell and buy again.

Plan and be patient with real estate

Perth real estate agent Bernie Kroczek says building wealth through property investment requires a long-term goal, developing a real estate strategy and being disciplined enough to follow the plan without over-extending.

“Assuming that you’ve done your homework and purchased wisely within your financial capabilities, holding a real estate property over the long-term (minimum of 10 years) virtually guarantees success – without taking unnecessary risks or trying to pick the real estate market,” Kroczek says. “It’s really quite simple and doesn’t require tricks, elaborate schemes or superior knowledge – which many people pay thousands of dollars for, attending one seminar after another looking for the magic bullet.”

Bright tells all his real estate investor clients they should look at a five-year buy-and-hold as a minimum – but preferably they should never sell. “They should be happy to own the property real estate if the market shut tomorrow and never reopened,” he says. Balanda says he helps many wealthy people with lots of property assets prepare their wills; invariably they’re people who’ve bought and held shares and property. “Very few people create wealth through trading, but I see a lot who create wealth through buying and holding good assets,” he says.

Wakelin advises investors in property to hang on to their tax-free profits and use them to leverage into other assets. “Hold on to good quality assets in real estate and use the equity build-up ad your notional deposit to buy the next property. It’s incredibly simple. The real take home advantage message is that there’s no need to line anybody else’s pocket. Hang on to your profits.”

Wakelin says real estate investors should base property-buying decisions on the potential to double in value every seven to ten years. “You only need to build up $50,000 to $60,000 in equity. You can unlock a good proportion of that and use it to springboard into the next asset.”

Hegney buys with a long-term view and never sells (these days) because he want to avoid the capital gains tax. “I’ve bought and sold 10 or 12 properties and the wealth I’ve created out of that hasn’t been as high as buying and holding five good properties – because a lot of my growth has gone in fees and taxes. “By the time you sell, pay fees an dpay capital gains tax, the next real estate investment you buy has to work that much harder to make up for that.”

Lomas owns more than 30 properties and has only once sold a property. “You might get good growth in the first year or it might be the ninth or tenth year, but you need to hold for ten years to make it work for you. If you’re buying to trade, you probably won’t give it that much time.”

Of course, there are real estate expectations…

Mortgage broker Tricia Green of Home Loans Now is an experienced real estate investor who sometimes sells assets in property. She says it depends on her initial objective in buying a particular property. “Sometimes I buy with the intention of making improvements to achieve capital gains and then on-selling,” she says. “But if it’s negatively geared for tax benefits I wouldn’t want to sell. It depends on what you’re buying it for.”

Green bought a block of apartment units with friends who planned to renovate and sell the improved product. “Our objective is to hold the property investment for a year to reduce the capital gains tax impact – and as the units become vacant we’ll renovate them and sell.”

Green says people who retain properties and build their equity so they can borrow against it to buy more need to be aware of the commitments they are taking on. “That’s fine providing it’s not going to create hardship in meeting repayments,” she says. “You have to service the loans and if the repayments are much higher than the income, it might work against you.

“But I agree, why sell if you’re comfortable with the commitment, because the real estate capital gains will still be there for you to use. If you’re investing for your retirement, just keep them and build up a property portfolio.”

Wakelin says there’s a danger in the buy-and-hold strategy in real estate property investing for people who over-commit and become too gung-ho. “There have been lots of so-called gurus urging people to be highly speculative,” she says. “It’s better to buy a good tenantable property, be patient and let it do its work to allow the home equity to build.”

Hegney says many home buyers in the recent boom market in Perth have made the mistake of buying with short term vision. “People have bought assets in real estate that have been fantastic performers over one or three years, but they’re not long-term performers,” he says. “if the property real estate market goes into reverse, they’re the assets you’d want to get rid of. “I would say to people – all those properties you bought in the cheaper areas that aren’t long-term high growth areas, I would sell them now. They’ve had their run.”

Lomas says trying to trade away your way to wealth is a mistake but it’s also a mistake to hang on to property real estate that doesn’t perform.

“In those circumstances, you have to cut your losses and get out when you can,” she says. “I always say you should never sell but sometimes you need to. I discourage people from hanging onto something that’s a bad real estate investment which is soaking up money and preventing them form buying more property real estate. You might need to get rid of it to allow you to do something else.”

A client of McGeever’s provides a striking example. The real estate investor paid $120,000 for a small suburban unit in 1992 and found it was only worth $95,000 10 years later. He had to decide whether to persevere or cut his losses. He decided to sell and used the proceeds to buy a small retail property investment for $365,000, yielding 9.5 per cent.

McGeever says with rental increases and firming yields, that real estate property is now worth $645,000.

Terry Ryder is the creator of hotspotting.com.au and author of four real estate books.

Should you rent or buy your next real estate property?

Stuart Wemyss of API Magazine (Feb 2007). Part 2 of 2 of this useful article that explains the differences in saving money for a real estate property purchase for primary residence versus one for investment purposes.

Cash flow and borrowing capacity difference

From a cash flow perspective, renting real estate may be a lot cheaper, especially for people with little equity or no deposit. Consider the example of two people who occupy a real estate property worth $500,000. The renter will probably pay a rental yield of say 3.5 per cent, depending on location. This amounts to an annual cash outflow of $17,500.

Assume the homeowner has a home loan of $400,000. Annual principal and interest repayments on this loan will be about $32,000. Therefore, the homeowner’s annual commitments are $14,500 higher than the renter ($32,000 less $17,500).

The renter can borrow over $220,000 more than the homebuyer because of this commitment difference (and also the fact that banks factor potential interest rate increases into their borrowing capacity calculations, which affects the homebuyer but not the renter). The homeowner’s loan would need to be less than $220,000 for the repayments to be less than the renter’s annual commitment of $17,500. The conclusion is, if you have little cash or equity, then you may be better off maximizing your borrowing capacity by renting rather than buying a home so that you can purchase more investment real estate properties.

Deposit Power

Real estate investors should understand that owning your home property may render some of your cash or equity to be unusable. Perhaps the best way to communicate this point is to consider an example. Consider two different investors in real estate property. One property investor has $200,000 in equity in his home (say a home worth $400,000 with an outstanding mortgage of $200,000) and another doesn’t own a home but has $200,000 in cash.

The real estate investor with $200,000 can buy about $800,000 of property (note, this figure will depend on the state the property is bought in as stamp duty charges vary), assuming a maximum loan to value ratio of 80 per cent is maintained (i.e. the $200,000 cash was used to pay for a 20 per cent deposit plus costs).

The real estate investor in property who owns his home can borrow up to 80 per cent of his home’s value in Australia (therefore, $320,000). He already has a $200,000 home loan secured by this property. Therefore, he can borrow an extra $120,000. This amount ($120,000) can be sued to pay for a 20 per cent deposit plus costs (eg. Stamp duty). Therfore, this investor in real estate can spend up to $480,000 on an investment property while maintaining a locan to value ratio of 80 per cent.

In these calculations, I’ve assumed that the investor in real estate borrows a maximum of 80 per cent of the property’s value. This is the maximum most lenders wil provide without charging Lender Mortgage Insurance, which can be a very costly upfront fee. However, it’s possible for the homeowner to bridge some of this gap between him and herself and the cash holder by borrowing more than 80 per cent (although as noted) this does come at a cost). This leads nicely into my next point about timing.

The Timing Issue

Most people intend to own a home or property some time in their life. Therefore, some investors in real estate are faced with the decision: “What do I buy first? A home or an investment property?” I would guess that there would be very few people who would decide never to purchase a home just because numbers don’t stack up.

Buying a Home and Then an Investment Property

The main advantage with this real estate investment strategy is that it allows you to balance your tax deductible and non-tax deductible debt more effectively. That is , you’re able to contribute all your cash towards your home purchase to minimize your non-tax deductible home loan. You can then utilize the home equity in your real estate property to borrow the total cost of your investment property, even if it means paying for mortgage insurance. The main practical downside to this strategy in real estate investing is that for many people, the subsequent investment property purchase may never eventuate. They may have every intention to purchase an investment property. However, due to constant distractions in life, time slips away and they may never actually complete the investment real estate property purchase. In this situation they would have been far better off purchasing the investment property before the home form a wealth building perspective. So, if you choose this strategy in real estate investments, make sure you follow through with your intentions and purchase investment properties.

Buying an Investment Property First and then a Home

Obviously the reverse of the pros and cons mentioned above apply to this strategy. Another benefit of this strategy is that buying an investment property a number of years before your buy a home may help you afford to purchase a more expensive home as you would have hopefully built up equity in your investment real estate portfolio.

Occupying an Investment Property

A really good “happy medium” is to purchase a property real estate purely on investment fundamentals (ie.e purchase the property as if you weren’t going to live in it) and then occupy the property as your home. Of course, this may involve you have to compromise on your personal lifestyle requirements. However, the main benefit in real estate is that you won’t compromise on the main reason for home investing in property. That is capital growth! You will, of course, be missing out on the income (i.e. rent). However, it’s capital growth that will increase your net wealth the most and allow you to continue to build your real estate property portfolio.

The biggest downside to buying a home is that home purchases are heavily influenced by personal, non-financial preferences (e.g. location, type of architecture etc.) This may result in someone purchasing a poor quality asset from an investment real estate perspective, whereas investment property purchases should be unemotional and only influenced by the question “which asset is going to perform the best?”.

Therefore, eliminating the “emotional” influences fro your home purchase in real estate should go a long way to helping you build wealth! This real estate strategy is particularly important for people who may only want to buy a home to occupy for a short period (say five years). Buying a good quality asset can help them tremendously after they decide not to occupy the home anymore and sell it or rent it out.

Buying: A Forced Savings Plan

One risk to taking the “rent a home and buy an investment property in real estate” option is procrastination. Buying a property, be it a home or an investment, is a bit like a forced savings plan. As discussed earlier, it’s cheaper to rent a property from a cash flow perspective (i.e. rent payments are lower than home loan repayments). That can be useful as long as you use the cash flow saving wisely (eg. Buying an investment property). However, some renters fall into the trap of spending the cash flow saving on their “lifestyle”. This is a common trap and is extremely “wealth destroying”.

By buying a real estate property, you’re essentially forced to contribute a greater proportion of your income towards buying an asset in real estate, rather than spending this money on your lifestyle. Therefore, if you’re not as disciplined with your money as you could be, make sure you have something in place to “force” you to buy an investment property (a good solution is to use a buyers agent to locate and purchase the investment property for you, because then you know it will definitely be done).

Focusing on Financials

I’ve written this article on the basis that people are focused solely on the financial pros and cons. I realize this isn’t realistic. I understand some people are mainly driven by personal preferences. For example, some people feel more secure if they own their home and would never want to rent. Some people prefer to rent near the city, because if they purchased, they could only afford to buy something in the outer suburbs and they aren’t prepared to compromise on location.

The only advice I have for people who are heavily influenced by their “personal preferences” is to be aware of the financial repercussions of your decisions and how they may affect your long-term wealth because they can be absolutely huge! The renting or buying real estate decision is not an easy choice to make.

Stuart Wemyss is a chartered accountant and director of mortgage broking firm ProSolution Private Clients. For more information, please contact API Magazine of Australia.

Melbourne Legend Hill Homes

These luxury homes are located at Epping Road in Melbourne’s newest luxurious and prestigious residential neighbourhood that is designed for the growing families and retired people in this multicultural metro area. With panoramic views and rolling hills, this protected and genuinely irresistible real estate development in Melbourne at Legend Hill Homes is not available to the public.

An introduction to the Homes at Legend Hill Melbourne

If you are new to the Melbourne area, this is a perfect opportunity to purchase a new home at the Legend hills real estate property development in Epping North where you will find lush landscaped parklands and beautifully crafted family homes that is just north of Melbourne at forty five kilometres. With the most beautiful natural surroundings of greenery, plants, grasses and pedestrian lined walkways, the Legend Hill Homes in Melbourne Australia are a chance to get out of the urban rush and into the safe and quiet neighbourhood of Epping Road. For those families and couples currently living in the metro Melbourne CBD area, the Homes at Legend Hill will provide you with a slower paced lifestyle and environment to die for, or to simply relax, enjoy and soak up every day. The Legend Hill Homes at Melbourne’s Epping North district community will provide an amazing array of housing types that include contemporary homes that are extremely low-maintenance and provide the utmost in living spaces and functionality. In addition, the Melbourne Legend Hill residences and luxury homes will provide the best quality finishes, features and home automation systems for you, the real estate investor or home buyer to enjoy. The Legend Hill Melbourne homes in Epping North will also be backed by Australand, the Melbourne real estate developer and marketer, eighty years of experience in building, designing and construction residential real estate master-planned communities such as the Legend Hill district.

The Real Estate Development Plan

The Legend Hill homes will be located in Northern Melbourne and will be close to may primary elementary schools, secondary schools and colleges as well as other college institutions making it a perfect locale for families and couples looking to have kids. The Melbourne Legend Hill Homes will also be close to two local shopping centres called Dalton Village and the Epping Plaza in addition to recreational venues, stadiums, parks, gardens and the Northern Hospital, so all community amenities are either within walking distance or a short drive away. The Legend Hill residences in Melbourne is an Australand master-planned community and you can check out the real estate development plan online at http://www.australand.com.au/realestate/viewproject.aspx?projectid=129&typeid=1§ionid=32&folderid=35 for more details about the property site.

The Legend Hill Display Homes

Looking for a new home north of Melbourne CBD? If so, then the master-planned home site of Legend Hill Residences may be your choice because of its terrific location, great finishes and close proximity to local amenities. The Legend Hills Melbourne sales office as well as their display homes are now ready for viewing, so you can contact Australand at 13 38 38 to book an appointment for residential sales enquiries or you can email them through the Australand web site. The display suites for the Legend Hill real estate properties is located at 140 Epping Road in Epping North in Melbourne Australia. The Sales Center is open on Saturday through to Thursday between the hours of 12pm to 6pm.

The Australand Legend Hill Features

The most luxurious and high-end features will be standard in every Legend Hill Home north of Melbourne that will include double garages with secure remote controlled access as well as designer lighting with brightness controls. Also, interior finishes at the Legend Hill Homes in Melbourne Australia will include gourmet style kitchens with the high-end Smeg stainless steel appliance set as well as stone counter tops as well as master bedrooms with walk in robes and private balconies as well as direct access to the master ensuites. The Melbourne Legend Hill Residence properties will also have five star energy rating to make sure that this real estate development is environmentally friendly to your community in addition to many water savings initiatives so you won’t have to worry when there are water shortages in the neighbourhood or state. The community of Legend Hill Melbourne will also have professional landscaping throughout in addition to the most functional, bright and energy efficient homes in the entire area.

Floorplans of the Homes

For further details about the Melbourne Legend Hill Homes floorplans and layouts, please visit the Australand website at http://www.australand.com.au/realestate/viewproject.aspx?projectid=129&typeid=1§ionid=33&folderid=35 and look through the subpages for the homes details. The Legend Hill homes will range between three and four bedroom residences and between one hundred and fifty four square metres to over two hundred and sixty one square metres in indoor space, which is very large for any Melbourne property. There is also a location map online.

For those of you who are interested in buying new Australia real estate and condo presales in Melbourne CBD including homes and apartments, click here.