A Queensland-based company that develops suburbs around Australia is in talks with one of the West Byron landowners to sell his share of residential blocks.
Villa World QLD director Michael Vinodolac confirmed with The Echo that they are working with Sydney-based property tycoon Terry Agnew, ‘which will deliver approximately 300 lots with a minimum lot size of 450sqm in accordance with the zoning requirements.’
The 108-hectare site opposite the industrial estate was controversially approved by the NSW planning department in November 2014.
Mr Vinodolac said, ‘We propose to deliver a very different estate from a typical Villa World estate. While we have not finalised our plans yet, we would expect that this project will incorporate appropriate design and building covenants to ensure high-quality design outcomes and sustainability targets. We want this project to respect the character of Byron Shire by implementing appropriate housing covenants.’
Affordable housing
‘The intent of this is to deliver more affordable housing options than just traditional homes, particularly for first home buyers.
‘Further, we have engaged a local development team with all of our consultants living and working in northern NSW to ensure that the benefits of this project are kept within the region.’
Cheaper and better! Why would anyone want a “traditional home”?
Traditional homes in many jurisdictions are built to high energy requirements – in Canberra for example they must be at least six star, and to cope with our wide temperature range, and they are often higher. Building to the climate of the Bay is less challenging and can also be done with quite conventional designs so the house needs little or no energy input to be comfortable. The more conventional designs are generally cheaper because the builders use standard fittings and factory produced wall and roof framing. I would not be so dismissive of conventional housing until I saw the “affordable” cost of this development.
… sorry my first sentence should read “Traditional homes in many jurisdictions are built to high energy efficiency requirements…”