The Range Estate - Croydon.....Anyone else Building there?

Hello,

Just found this forum a few weeks back and thought I'd join, great work eveyone.

We have just brought land at The Range estate in Croydon Victoria, this will be our third house but first time building. Our land is not ready till July 2010 so we have some time to research and look at some builds. This froum has been great to see some of the larger project builders that we have been looking at and peoples experiances (good and bad).

Anyway, if anyone else in building in this estate (did a search and found one) but have not heard from many others, say hi, would be great to chat, or anyone else for that matter.

Regards

N & J

Hi Undercover,

Welcome to the forum. I've been lurking here for a few months now waiting for our land to title. I have bought lot 110 in stage 1 on Norris Cct. I'm expecting title by the end of Jan. I take it you've bought in the second stage if they're telling you July??

SK

I wonder what kind of internet connections they are going to provide there if any. Croydon has good broadband services however estates in surrounding areas such as Mooroolbark and Lilydale have all been put on RIMs and have no broadband support other than wireless. I wonder if The Range will join the broadband blackhole or actually have proper infrastructure. As shown many times a phone connection does not guarantee any form of ADSL.

Considering the way they have marketed this estate and the prices they are asking I'd expect nothing less than ADSL2 to match the rest of Croydon. I wouldn't count on it though. Have they mentioned anything about this?

Hi, Eskay

We actually just brought in Stage 3. (which only came out on the 19th December). There are only 3 lots left in this stage now as they sold really quick. I was lucky to get one with 18m frontage (just over 600 sqm), as most of stage 3 was very small lots.

So, have you decided on what you are building yet? I have only just started looking but would like to see what is gettin gbuilt in stage 1 and 2 to get some ideas and see the extent in what people are choosing to build. I would think most people would be building some high quailty homes with the guidelines etc....

Thanks for your reply and great meeting you.

Cheers

Hey Mossie,

I have not heard anything yet or seen any details of such. I'm not to concerned personally as I would not have a home phone anyway as a matter of choice due to having 2 mobile phones already!!!

Thus I would probably keep using my mobile USB broadband which is cheap and is connected to my mobile phone provider (three).

But I would hope like you said they do put in such provisions to support ADSL2.

Have you brought land in the estate?

No, I live in a new estate in Mooroolbark (Blue Ridge) but used to live in Croydon not far from there. It's a very good location and a good investment as Croydon prices have shown lately that it is a highly sought after area (A 1250sq vacant block of land sold recently for 571k). The estate is quite nice but the land sizes put me off a little bit. I'm not in a position to consider it anyway but I'm interested to know if they are going to put in BB services. So far estates: Lakeside, the Gateway, Blue Ridge and one other all have RIMs and limited to no BB support. Very poor and its become a real issue for people living in the area. I just wonder if the local MP and council pushed for this to be addressed or just let the same thing happen all over again.
Anyway, it will be a great place to live so all the best. Did you see the story they had on the TV show 'On Display' recently? Quite interesting.

Hi,

We've been going through a custom design process with a smaller player. With all of the "guidelines" - (read - restrictions !!! **grrr** ) We've had to modify heavily on our original home concepts and also go upstairs because we weren't allow to use up their precious land. We're still outside the guidelines here and there so we will have to ask for special consideration to get through. If they don't allow it, I'm not sure what we'll do. It also turns out there are a couple of tree's left on the land that they didn't want to move. They're right in front of the crossover!!! so how they expect me to build a garage there I have no idea!!!

Yes, I think we will end up going with a double-storey home to max the use of the land. I would also like a bigger garage which seems to work better with some double-storey designs.

The only problem is waiting 6-9 months for the titles.

I was told stage 4 has not even been approved by council yet and they (australand) are having some issues with the amount of open space vs block size.

Yep,

We were told Australand were only allowed to build on 60% of the development. With buyers only allowed to use somewhere between 40% and 60% of their blocks, they're getting some of their own frustrations that we are all seeing.

Our design has 3 garages too, Be careful, the design guidelines say they don't want garage fronts to dominate the house so we are trying to sneak it in with some articulation on the 3rd garage....

That's a long time to wait. Although we were told last August and are still waiting...

SK

Hi Mozzie,
How have you been?
I actually know someone who works for Telstra setting up the phone systems and internet - He told me that the broadband cable ends just before my street (the old part of Summerhill Park Drive) because Telstra do not want to install the required cabling for us to connect to the internet because it costs them money and once they have done it we can just hook up with Optus etc anyway cos of some legal thing so they loose money out of it - So it sucks! but I would think Croydon is going to be the same.... The only way we can get cable internet is if we wait for someone to move out from one of the few houses surounding us that have it so we can pinch it off them! I am hoping knowing this friend will help me out with this
Kel

Sorry to steal your thread, but I also have a friend high up in Telstra planning. As we live near Mozzie and Kelly girl it could happen this year, upgrade etc. it is going to cost Telstra $80k to upgrade it, but it seems it is needed. We are on a wireless plan that is expensive.

I like "The Range" but found the prices too high for the land size and right on Dorset Rd was not my cup off tea. I like the area but not where it is.

Good luck with the building process though and enjoy the forum, it is very useful for people in a similar position to yourself and you don't feel alone or silly or anything on here!!!

Harribeka

Hi there!

Ooh I am glad to have found this thread, my husband and I bought into stage 2 back in October, and were told that settlement would be Mar/Apr (most likely Apr), so it was interesting to read that stage one hasn't settled yet because we were told that was meant to settle in December! I hope that means they aren't going to delay stage two
Sounds like a few are having similar problems to us re: fitting a house onto the block size. We bought a 584sq/m corner block however it really is not big enough to have a one storey house because of the stupid 5m setback from the front, 2m from the side and 3m from the back. We now are looking at stretching the budget and building a double storey because it really makes more sense - whilst still leaving us with some backyard.
Has anyone else bought a corner block? We were looking in our contract the other day for fencing requirements, and we came across a clause which says that Australand are contributing $1 (that's right, one whole dollar) to the fencing down the side of the house that is facing the street. How mean is that??!!

Hey all, found this site recently it is great reading. Have also brought in the range - lot 103, and we have an easement along our back fence which is 5 metres so has reduced our house plans to a 13m wide house. We are looking at henley and building the cooper with extra alfresco and rumpus at the back. Can finally have my own space away from the kids. Anyway love to hear more details from those in the range. Cheers neil and kylie

Oh interesting to hear that they are going to upgrade now - Our friend is always away doing installs all over Australia so I havent seen him for a while (but I really need to cos he said he needs to set our phones up while we are at frame stage and as you can see we are) I might try and get a short term plan to get me through till the upgrade from one of the wireless things - ryan already has it on his lap top for work but when he is not home i need the net!
Back on the topic - I really liked the Croydon estate but being 1st home buyers we need to sign up between 30 June and 30 Sep 09 for the 32k so it wasnt an option as the land wasnt ready. That would have meant another year of living back at home with my parents
It looks like a lovely plan they have going for The Range - Who knows it could be my second home one day

Hi Neil,

Had any communication about titling? We bought 110 but still don't know if it's going to be this month or not...

The setbacks made us go 2 storey. The additional cost has been substantial..

Hi eskay
We were told late jan. early feb. so hopefully about there. We only bought our block late dec. It was the last in the first stage release not to be sold - i think cause of the battleaxe block not many were interested in it. ( we ended up getting a bit of a discount on on the land as a result). We were trying to buy an established house, but there was nothing around that suited us. I hope that all the restrictions dont impact upon to many people wanting to build what they want, cheers neil and kylie

Hey Kellygirl & Harribeka - thanks for the info. You have no idea how glad I'll be if they extend that cable throught the rest of the estate - I'd actually gladly pay for my share of it - thats how much I hate wireless. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Hey Neil, (I'm also a Neil.. )

Funny you mention Lot 103, I was actually very keen on that block and was going to place an offer on it when it got sold..... (to yourself I now see)..

But it was for the best because the house we are know keen on is over 15m wide plus the extra garage space it will be close to 16.5m. I liked lot 103 due to the extra land size and the longer battle-axe driveway suited us due to having trailers and dirtbikes etc...

It was also fairly cheap for that size of land compared to others regardless of the battle-axe nature.

I was told Australand was starting back the week of the 11th, have not been past since so may check to see if they are back working!!

Nice to meet you

Hi Kelly,

I only recently looked at the blocks in Mooroolbark in the Hillside/Summerhill estates, but the only remaining blocks had quite a slope and had some fill which incresed the site costs to more then what I would have liked. The agent also said the developer will not budge on the price 220K, even with the chance of spending 30K plus on site works, so I that put me off a little.

I ended up paying more for the range in the end regarless but the site will come with a flat and compacted buidling envelop....(fingers crossed).

Hey if I end up selling I'll let you know, I work in Prahran and at present living in Ringwood so I will be adding 15 mins to my drive everyday when we move there......and I hate traffic....so might not last that long there ...lol

Hi Everyone,

For those having purchased in Stage 1, I hope you have letters from your conveyancers. Title occurred about the 18th Jan. It Begins!!

SK

Hi guys, We also bought in Stage 1, waiting for settlement in the next couple of week - finally!!! Just wondering if anyone has had feedback regarding their site costs from their builders as yet? its still early stages, we had our reports done prior to xmas just waiting on the estimate from our builder...hoping its not going to be too bad...!!!