Building in Calderwood Valley

Soo I was lucky enough to score a block in Calderwood Valley's first release and was wondering if we have any other lurkers here that also are going to be building in Calderwood Valley?

Me personally I was hoping to get a 450sqm block, but alas by the time I got an appointment at the sales office they were all gone. I did get my second preference in the 375sqm blocks so can't really complain, it's just given me more to spend on the house! I've already locked myself in to build the Cordova One with Mcdonald Jones (Nathan out at their Brooks Reach display homes has been great to deal with) and can't wait for the journey to get underway!

Lucky you Stuart05, We have been waiting for this estate to be released for sometime now and have missed out on both releases but both times we have made it thru the first stage but have not secured a spot in the top 40, we gave recieved phone calls on the Sunday Arvo offering a smaller left over block but we are after a bigger family sized block.

Hi Friends,
Is this a good place for an investment property?
Any flood related issues...

What size block are you after? 450sqm or above? These blocks seem to get snapped up first....

Hopefully you will have more luck this coming week!



Really depends what you are after. The biggest problem could be the timeframe, who knows how long until they actually have the land developed (despite the time frames they give us).

The Albion Park Rail bypass will make the area more accessible during peak periods (and storms which currently shut the Illawarra Hwy between AP and Yallah during any decent rain) and the Liberals will supposedly start work in this term (provided they flog off the electricity network). This has to surely help push the property prices up. When the Albion Park township itself is bypassed (who knows when this will happen) it will also provide a boost in values I would assume.

On the other hand, you look at Brooks Reach, the prices seem to be alot dearer and it will always be in the middle of nowhere and be ages away from the freeway/highway. WCC's management of West Dapto as a whole is a joke.

In terms of localised flooding of the estate at Calderwood Valley, I wouldn't know. I would assume though that if the current farmland is too low it will be built up above the flood line. If you go to the sales office they have a model of the estate which shows the topography of the land. I chose the highest block I could, so if I go under it means pretty much all of Stage 1 will be under water as well...

Yes we are after 540 thereabouts, we will give it another go on Tuesday

Prices have gone up as expected but you get that. We are logging on using nbn so hopefully we get thru.

I thought the prices looked to have gone up only a small amount? I was thinking they would have started putting the prices up more steeply to be honest...

Hey Stuart05! We were lucky enough to secure a block in the first release too!

Now the waiting game starts! This is the first time we have built, so a lot too learn.

We are hoping to put in a combustion fire place as a feature, our builder said they can do it but have to check with council if we are allowed one.. Does any one know if SCC allow these??

Can someone give me a brief run-down on the email/reg process? I mean after the clock hits zero.

Was anyone else on here lucky enough to get an appointment?

Ahh nice to see someone else from Stage 1 on here. What size lot did you get and who are you building with if you don't mind me asking?

As for fireplaces I have no idea, you would be best to ring up and ask SCC....

I take it you would have got the email from Lend Lease the other day about construction starting this month. Will be interesting to see how progress goes and if they get it done ready for a March 2016 registration!



Sorry i don't seem to be getting emails about replies. Basically they will send an email at a random time in that half hour window. You need to click that as fast as you can (Stage 1 have the spots all filled up in less than a minute I was told) and then it should have your name and email address pre-filled, you whack in your phone number and submit the form to them. If you are successful they will get in touch on the Wednesday, ask your preferred block, take your credit card details and book your appointment. When they ask about the preferred block they will tell you if that is still available based on the indications that others have given but anything could happen on the appt day (in my case someone had said they wanted my block but when I got there it was still up for grabs so they obviously changed their mind).

We got a 430 block, which we are happy with - it was our first preference!

As for builders, there is way too many to choose from. We have narrowed it down to Coral Homes, Eden Brae or Sekisui House. Just waiting for some estimates to come back, as price will be a major factor!

Yes we got the building update email, which was great too see but we are not getting our hopes up that it will be on time!

Yeah I am dubious as to whether it will be registered in next March, however, Lend Lease do have a vested interest in getting Stage 1 completed on time since half of it is their display village and sales centre...

Yes sure is plenty to choose from, however, for me the 12.5m wide lots then narrowed it down greatly (along with my budget). If LL had chosen 13m it would have opened up more options. In any case, I was keen from the start on a steel framed home and then of all the builders I checked out at Shell Cove and Brooks Reach display village MDJ seemed to have the best option for me. Worked out well I guess.

I wasn't aware though that Coral and Eden Brae were building down here?

Developers are notoriously optimistic when it comes to registration dates - expect the worst and hope for the best.

Yes Eden Brae will be setting up shop in the Illawarra once Calderwood is up and running. Coral has been around and about down this way for a little while - they're building at least one home in Brooks Reach. I've built with coral many years ago, albeit in Coffs Harbour, so I'm keen to talk to them about building in Calderwood.

Hi, we also got a block in the first release. Ours is 540sqm, i did take a day off work though and just sat infront of the computer and waited for the email (used my gmail account and i also have fibre internet, didnt want to do it from work as the net is either fast or slow thoughout the day)

We just signed up to build with mcdonald jones, my wife loves the milano design which is at shell cove.

I seen a few builders on realestate.com adverting house and land packages already i am pretty sure its in the second release.

This will be our second build, we built in ropes crossing years ago with eden brae and that was a lend lease development too.

Pranil07 how did you find Eden brae?

We finally got through and got one of our preferred blocks, we got a 615sqm block in the last release. Now the fun begins to find a builder

That's a nice block, great frontage - it was one of our top preferences. Well done

Yup I am expecting the worst but still hopeful that LL's own vested interest will motivate them to stick to the time frame stated...



I did it at work but also had my mobile as a backup. Luckily work's internet has been running fast for me lately!

The Milano is a really nice house, way out of my price range when you include the larger parcel of land it needs.

I just checked out those H&L packages, quite pricey really! Glad I didn't wait foir packages to come up and yes I think you are right about the stages they are in.



Congrats. Even then once you find the builder the fun begins with the selections processes!

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On another note I sent an email weeks back to LL about if the estate will be serviced by NBN but never heard back at all. Then I stumbled upon this the other day:
http://www.opticomm.net.au/index.php/co ... tfilters=0

From what I have seen all of Opticomm's limited number of ISPs are overpriced (compared to the NBN) and seems to be a mixed bag of issues reported by people. About the only advantage to Opticomm is that your Freeview and Foxtel are delivered over the fiber (and decoded by the 'modem' to a normal coax connection).

Ringing the sales office they tell me they have no idea what the fiber will be...so I'm hoping its an error and it hasn't been finalised but it potentially looks like we are going to get dudded with Opticomm provided fiber and not NBN provided fiber.

It's 100% going to be Opticomm.

Bugger. How did you find that out?