Somerfield Estate Keysborough

Hi fellow somerfielders,
have been away from the forum for a while, busy with kids and house stuff! we bought in linley stage 1A. we didnt get a discount, should have pushed for one though cause there are two ugly looking timber stakes right infront of our block, to indicate where the recycled water and "something else" is located. i was really upset when i drove by and saw them......not happy jan, not happy!
anyway, we paid 355k back in august for 16x32 block. its about 20k extra cause its opposite the "reserve".. you will see it when you drive in, just look out for the stakes! lol!

we saw a lot of homes, but finally decided on the santorini 29 with M , for the design as we wanted all our living area on the west and bedrooms on the right. we didnt have many choices due to our crossover, many displays have garages and living on the same side......but we needed garage and living on opposite sides!

Anyway, we are very happy with the santorini 29. we drove all the way to point cook to see the house, with the extended alfresco. we got a good deal, colourbond roof for $1950, hebel(which is a rendered look) for the whole house for $1950 and $15k to put towards any upgrades. we paid the deposit on sunday and now waiting for approval for our facade.

One thing i wanted to mention was regarding the eaves, guidelines says 600mm eaves, but we found out that has now been relaxed to 600mm eaves to the front and only 3mt wrapped around the side, if you are looking to save, here is a good place to save $$$.....

Happy house hunting everyone! will be on here more regularly now.

cheers,
Jen

I can confirm this as well. Not all the builders are sure about this guideline, but they are only required for the front and wrap around the side - but they don't have to be on the garage. We had issues confirming with different builders about what house would fit on our block due to this (some thinking it was required for the entire house).

Also I've noticed not many Claremont people on here yet!

Yes with the eaves we have them around the house but only at the front of the garage

Hi Everyone thanks to Kota...

To clear things up about the eaves, you can now get the updated Guidelines for Somerfield which have the altered information regarding the eaves. Just contact the office and they will email this to you, which you can forward on to your builder.

As Kota and Josie state the eaves need to be 600mm for the facade and wrap 3m down each side except if you have a garage on the boundary. This is for single storey homes.

Double stoey homes require 600mm eaves regardless.



And about the flat roofs...this refers to flat style tiles and you cant have glazed tiles either. The other option is colorbond.

Hiya Neighbors,

My family has also bought a land at Somerfield at 1C. So thankful that the title is finally registered as we have been waiting patiently since June and have been penalized heavily by the builder due to the delay.

Also, apparently DAP needs us to give them a landscape plan prior to fully approving the construction of our new house. Has anyone else submitted theirs yet? They have strict guidelines and we dont want to get it wrong as it may further delay the site start date=more $$$$$ penalty!

Hi Katmeow
We are in 1E and also have been waiting patiently(not so patient now!!)
We are also going to get penalized by the builder for not starting before December 2009.
We had to submit a drawing (it wasnt anything fancy)
We just got the plans of the sitting of the house on the block from the builder
enlarged it and my husband marked out where the driveway was going to go and measurements, the path, the letterbox, and also fencing(eg side of house)
He also marked in where various garden beds and plants were going to go.
On a separate sheet he listed the type/colour of the driveway, letterbox,path etch
he also had to list the type of plants we were going to use
It has been submitted.
The only thing we had comeback from the developer was the cornice on the front of our house
it was too decorative apparently not contempary enough so PD has fixed that
Josie

Hey KatMeow,

We are handing our landscaping plan into our builder and they are going submit them with the floorplans. I have done this myself by getting the floorplan and using the computer to add all the details such as types of mulch, driveway material, plant types. etc

If you ask the Somerfield office they can send you a landscape sample. They emailed me a copy of one that was submitted by a builder.

Hi neighbors,

We bought a land in Linley. However, we had some troubles with the valuation of the land. The bank requires a environmental cert. for the land which the developer says it can only be done when the land is about to settle. We have already tried two different banks, both approved our land loan application on the condition that we can provide a environmental certificate of the land. Does anyone have the same problem?

Thanks for the info josie and faerie. I will probably get the somerfield office to email us a landscape sample and then try to sketch out something with the computer.

Promise Land-our lender didnt require the environmental cert so i am not sure what it is. Not sure whether the other fellow neighbors have the same issues?

Hi
I am a Lender with CBA and have never come across anything like that.
I have done a couple of valuations for Somerfield and have had no problems.
I have also done valuations on land elsewhere and have never been asked to supply an environmental certificate

Hey guys

Been awhile since i last posted, been hectic at work

Just received an email today that they're releasing the next stage of land - Stage 1K which is "in a quiet corner of the Linley precint"

The launch is next Wednesday at 6PM. It'll be interesting to see how that goes!

I am so annoyed as we got a letter today saying that Stage 1E has been delayed again!!!
Won't settle now till February!!
It wil probably get delayed again as it seems to be the trend.
They say a date you get all excited and then they send you an email or letter to say that there are further delays.
Not Happy!!!
More penalties from the builder so unfair!!!

That definitely seems to be the trend for the estate.

When we bought our land in May, the contract states that the land would be titled by Aug. And then it was delayed to Oct and then Nov and finally it was titled 2 weeks ago.

Eventhough settlement is booked for next week, there wont be any progress for a while as it is a bad time of the year, with xmas/new year shut down period=more delay=more penalties

Yup. Not Happy...i am sure the feeling is mutual for all our fellow Somerfielders

For those who are still using Google Map to check out Somerfield, you can view a more updated satellite view at http://www.nearmap.com

Google Map still shows the flower farm which is what the estate used to be but you can actually view it as it is on 13 Nov 09 (the last time i check) using Near Map.

It was so exciting seeing the roads, crossovers and street lamps rather than just the flower farm sheds so i thought i would share the joy

HI guy, when u said for more future delay, and u will get penalties from builder, Meaning u guy get charge more money from builder??

Yup. The builder gives u a certain amount of days of when ur home contract will need to become unconditional from ur first initial deposit with them. Else, u will be penalized a certain % of your total contract price per month for the extension unless the delay is caused by the builder.

We learned it the hard way that "Unconditional" means ready to go=construction ready to start (at least that's what our builder says). We thought we could save by signing with the builder early before they increase base prices of the house few months back when we first bought the land. In the end, we still have to fork out more $$$ due to the delay of the title registration. Nothing you can do about it as the developer doesn't need to compensate for it either and it's not the builder's fault so it all comes down to more $$ penalty to the owner.

Merry christmas and Happy New Year too all of you. Wish our build home successful in coming year.

Hi
Hope everyone had a great Christmas and hoping 2010 will be an exciting one.

Does anyone know when they will start working back on the land??

Josie

I assume building will recommence the week of Jan 11th, as most building companies return to trade this week. The somerfield sales office re-opened on the 4th on Jan, however I guess it really depends on the individual companies. But if they arent back this week, it would be next week for sure.

Hi guys,

I just stumbled across this forum, now I have others to share my excitment with!

We bought in release 1K (Clarendon Drive) on 23rd December. We are meant to have contracts by the end of this month... but we don't get the land until October

Although I did notice after doing some 4 wheel driving, that there are actually posts out with our lot number on them, which was exciting.

This will be our 2nd home but the first we've built, it's very exciting but scary at the same time.

We've waded through the Somerfield guidelines and at the moment I think we will be going for the Henley Monterey Q3!

Good luck everyone and will look forward to hearing about your progress!

Manda