Browse Forums Real Estate 1 Apr 28, 2012 3:54 pm Hi guys, Tried doing a search however with the words 'sunshine' and 'river' it brought up many unrelated topics. My wife and I have been thinking about building/buying in Sunshine North, we haven't built before so would like to see if there's any advice about this area in particular, as building there would be on a slope. Just wondering if anyone can recommend any builders who have built there and if there are any house and land packages? Would building on a slope cost more? Advantages/disadvantages? What to look out for! Any help would be appreciated thanks. River Valley Sunshine North 2May 02, 2012 8:54 pm We have just moved in after a nightmare of a build. Our original builders went into administration in 2010 and once the insurance was settled we had to find new builders to finish the build. We went with Varcon, who are local builders in Maidstone. They were fantastic. Great quality. Quick. Reliable. I don't know about house and land packages - you might need to speak to the developers about that. Building on a slope cost significantly more - when we started looking at land in the area the quotes we were getting said that site costs were approx 10-12k per metre fall in the building envelope - so approx 75-80k on some of the sites. Also you'd need to find a builder that can do custom builds as the major players won't build on those slopes. There's land down near the river for sales that is flat, so although you pay more for the land you could put a metr1con or denn1s etc home on it for a lot less. I love living here. Hope this helps Re: River Valley Sunshine North 3Dec 28, 2012 11:50 pm Hi Kenny_gee Did you end up buying and building in River Valley? Happy.grl - did you initially start the build with GMH (greater Melbourne Homes)? We almost signed with them but ended up going with a private builder. Cheers Re: River Valley Sunshine North 4Jan 10, 2013 6:38 am Hi nismo No we havent, we're still looking to buy around the area It's out of our budget to build there. Re: River Valley Sunshine North 6Jul 22, 2014 10:26 am Just my 2 cents, we did some research into the area, one of the cons is site is in the flight path and does have significant airplane traffic. Data are shown here with flight data and ANEF contour map of sound levels http://melbourneairport.com.au/about-me ... -tool.html or http://webtrak.bksv.com/mel Although Bvld release is meant to be their most level blocks but reason it looks reasonably flat is because they have put significant amount of fill with no compaction done. Sn3aky in my opinion. signed on with builder and proceeded with soil test, Soil reports came back as "site classified "P" due to the depth of filling material encountered. require pliers (which adds significant site cost, might as well build on a slope cheaper land cost, reason land cost that much initially is meant to have less site cost) anyway, paid for additional/detailed soil test to be done and at this point job with builder was cancelled as there is evidence of landslip already occurring and some seen in the nearby pavements, due to that their engineering team were concerned about providing warranty for 10+ years. (with the recent slab heave issues in the west too) heard other lots/buyers are getting similar soil test results too. just sharing what my experience was and let you make you own opinion.... Re: River Valley Sunshine North 7Aug 06, 2014 11:27 am jonnielee78 Just my 2 cents, we did some research into the area, one of the cons is site is in the flight path and does have significant airplane traffic. Data are shown here with flight data and ANEF contour map of sound levels http://melbourneairport.com.au/about-me ... -tool.html or http://webtrak.bksv.com/mel Although Bvld release is meant to be their most level blocks but reason it looks reasonably flat is because they have put significant amount of fill with no compaction done. Sn3aky in my opinion. signed on with builder and proceeded with soil test, Soil reports came back as "site classified "P" due to the depth of filling material encountered. require pliers (which adds significant site cost, might as well build on a slope cheaper land cost, reason land cost that much initially is meant to have less site cost) anyway, paid for additional/detailed soil test to be done and at this point job with builder was cancelled as there is evidence of landslip already occurring and some seen in the nearby pavements, due to that their engineering team were concerned about providing warranty for 10+ years. (with the recent slab heave issues in the west too) heard other lots/buyers are getting similar soil test results too. just sharing what my experience was and let you make you own opinion.... Hi Jonnilee78, We are venturing into buying a block of land on River valley boulevard as well(more so at the top end rather than the bottom near the river) as it has great future potential being so close to the cbd and due to the rail link. I am curious to know on which block did you find the class P due to depth of filling issue? We spoke to a few locals who have had houses here since 2010 and they have not heard of any slab heave issues around. Areas like Melton, point cook, doreen and Caroline springs have slab heave issues and we personally have seen some houses with cracks within which is scary. With the flight path, there is minimum noise of N65 which is less than most parts of melbourne such as Keilor, Keilor east, niddrie, avondale heights, glenroy, epping, etc... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Anyone else here who have built on river valley estate or are in process of building? Re: River Valley Sunshine North 8Aug 12, 2014 2:14 pm Hi Rambo, If you are really keen on buying. I would do your soil test first yourself and not just listen to what the estate agent says or claims. personally I would def stay clear. have a read of this. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/west ... 6983064245 just to show how doggy they can be, the lots were sold initially with agent promoting it is facing future park and thus the price is more etc, for those who have paid premium for those lots, they are putting landfill, and selling it as land. Bear in mind the depth drop is easily more than 8M Re: River Valley Sunshine North 9Aug 12, 2014 8:09 pm Hi Jonnielee78 Thanks for the update and yes we will definitely go with a detailed soil test before going ahead. We were informed about future park facing riveryvalley boulevard and that no houses would be built there..interesting article and we will be speaking to the council on this as well. Which lot number did you do the soil test on? Cheers, Re: River Valley Sunshine North 10Aug 28, 2014 1:18 pm Folks the current Rivervalley Boulevard Release was initially released in 2010. After cracks started to appear in the road the area was closed off and they decided to put drainage pipes in. Definitely in the flight path of the airport but has never bothered me (it does bother some). Soil test are a must as this is an old Quarry site so there is a bit of rock around if not fill. Read Jonnielee78's comments and I'd say that would be consistent with my observations because the blocks in the initial release were never released to the initial purchasers and subsequently resold. Check the Rivervalley building guidelines - you need to obtain a planning permit then a building permit so it can take forever to get approval. Yourland Developments has been engaged to manage stage 6 development but does not have the contract to manage the quarry pit in stage 6. The quarry pit in stage 5 has taken close to 14 years to be filled and now the the developer (River Valley Developments) has applied for an amendment to increase the amount of fill in the stage 5 quarry. Should be a couple of newspaper articles around about the area. The residents in stage 5 don't believe the new plans reflect what they were told when they signed up. If you can buy near the river it is a beautiful place to live. On a sunny day it is truly magnificent. The blocks on the hill have brilliant views but have challenges with the building (volume builders won't touch sloped blocks and a lot of those blocks have solid rock in them being an old quarry site). If you hear anything about a footbridge across the Maribyrnong disregard it. Not scheduled until stage 7 and they still have no idea what stage they will develop next e.g. Stage 4 is the area east of Duke street and remains undeveloped. Stage 5 was supposed to have a local shopping centre and still not done. Current stage being developed is stage 6 so it is not being done sequentially. Don't expect things to happen quickly - Brimbank council is in administration and I don't think they want the maintenance costs of large open spaces. Re: River Valley Sunshine North 11Oct 16, 2015 2:06 pm Hi, we are looking to builder in Keilor East - Vally lake. our is 5m slopping block.Any idea about site cost for 28 sq ? any recommendations on builders appreciated. Thanks, Nicole1983 Re: River Valley Sunshine North 12Oct 26, 2015 5:52 pm Nicole1983 Hi, we are looking to builder in Keilor East - Vally lake. our is 5m slopping block.Any idea about site cost for 28 sq ? any recommendations on builders appreciated. Thanks, What is a 5m slopping block? Re: River Valley Sunshine North 14Mar 05, 2016 2:41 am People must have bought in the River Valley release because that is progressing but I don't think they are getting much interest in the Riverina release. Suspect they are asking too much for the blocks. While they are large they are steep and the cost of building will be phenomenal. Typical of the estate the momentum built up in 2014 / 15 then just falls away as usual. thanks guys! yes this is how I've exactly raised it with the builder. still awaiting response. 12 6408 The warning is on the sticker on the door too. Second the aluminium powdercoat 6 19116 Hi, can anyone recommend a custom home builder who can build in north east area? Looking to build a custom 4-br energy-efficient home with a max budget of 750k. If they… 0 23655 |