Saltwater Coast Estate - Whats It Like?

Hey All!

First post on Homeone! Its such a helpful forum so I figured its my turn to have some input!
Me and my partner bought land almost a year ago and are just about to start the build!

This is our first move into real estate and it has been very exciting but also very stressful.
We started looking at property a couple of years ago and thought about an apartment, but that didn't suit our lifestyle (I need a garage!) also I didn't like the fact that majority of apartments are owned by overseas investors.

Then we started to play with the idea of renovations and flipping. From our perspective it seemed at that point people were paying far too much for crap, and us being very inexperienced thought that it might not be a good move straight away and still being young didn't want to restrict our social life.

So we turned to land and building as family members had recently been through it all, so it was familiar and the idea of a brand new home (chosen by us) was very appealing.

As our families live in the North West of Melbourne we wanted to be relatively close to them and work (which at the time was Altona and the CBD). This left the Northern & Western suburbs like Mernda, Craigiburn, Donnybrook, Mickleham, Plumpton, Rockbanck, Tarneit, Trugganina, Weribee etc. None of which really appealed to us as having the IT factor and some getting very far from the CBD.

Point Cook started to stand out (especially because I was working close by at the time) because of the proximity to the bay and the relatively good access to the freeway and into the city (with no traffic and depending on where in Point Cook you live). So we checked out estates online and then decided to go for a drive down there.

We drove into Saltwater Estate and fell in love, the views of the city caught our attention, the clean parks and modern community center sold us. So we looked at what was available and started the budgeting.

First thing we released was that it was expensive..... but, after long discussions over budgets we decided to go for it!
We bought a 444sqm titled block (had heard horror stories about buying non-titled blocks) and then started straight away to look at houses. We are now on a time-frame to be able to receive the Stamp Duty Concession and need to build and occupy within a year of land settlement (more on that in future build posts).

So from now we plan to create a Build thread over in the New Homes section! Follow along as its already been a turbulent experience!

But what I want to hear in this thread is......
What are your experiences in Point Cook & the Saltwater Coast Estate (Living/Visiting/Building/Buying/Impressions)?

How is:
- the world renowned bad traffic?
- the beautiful parks?
- the amazing city views?
- the high renter to owner percentage?
- the community facilities?
- the body corporate?
- the land quality? (highly reactive soils)
- the air quality? (does it smells?)
- public transport?
- land price?
- crime?
- driving to and from city/how long does it take?
- negatives?
- positive?
- annoyances?
- what you love?
etc.

How much is land around there now if you don’t mind me asking? I love that area. Always loved sanctuary lakes and salt water. 2 of my favourite places. When we were thinking of buying land their it was at $600,000 the seller wanted for it. But that was private. We didn’t think it was worth that much.


So we decided on Truganina. Which we think it’s a prime location. Your close to so many places here. It’s amazing how close everything is. And you don’t have to go far too shop for a lot of things. City is about 19km. Which is so easy too get too. Freeways are not far. We also got a market near by. We used to live in Caroline springs.


I have heard of the traffic in pointcook. That’s one of the reasons we didn’t buy there. I don’t know if opening up that freeway has made a difference? Although I can understand why you bought there. It’s very beautiful there.

Do you plan on building? Or is it for investing?

Hi Doulton

Land Prices when I was buying ( early 2018 ) were quoted at:
- Upper Point Cook = $1100 per sqm
- Saltwater Coast = $1000 per sqm
(Which are both very pricey)

The sales agents said that it was purely to do with the traffic on Point Cook Road and the access Upper Point Cook has to the freeway.

Truganina and Tarneit are both in such great growth areas too, I think a lot will happen in that area over the next 10-15 years and it will boom (not that it hasn't already had huge building growth). I regularly stay in Caroline Springs and find its easy to commute everywhere from as well, I would imagine Truganina would be very similar.

The traffic of Point Cook is a major concern to me so I hope there is future works to alleviate this problem. The Laverton bridge is ridiculous and I would hope is going to get a big update. But again, we are happy with our purchase because we love the estate, its just a little bit more of a drive to get too haha.

We plan on building a nice house for us to live in. Currently we are almost finished admin stage with Henley. I will be creating a Building thread soon, just hard to find where to start! We've been on such a roller-coaster ride already to get to here!

I find it so much better here then living in Caroline springs. Or should I say burnside heights more so.


I just finished building with Metricon. It’s also our 4th time building. So if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask.

I think they may do something about pointcook traffic as it’s pretty bad traffic there. I’m not sure if that new freeway is suppose to help with it or not.


We are in the allure estate. I do have a Facebook page as well. There are a few professionals on there that are in the trade. If that interest you feel free to join. The pages are a great source of information.

You just start your own thread. Usually give details of what your building and what variations your putting in there. Then put the link in your thread so people will be able to click on it and check it out. If you get stuck let me know

Wow, 4 builds, I don't think I can handle another one for a while and we haven't even started building yet haha!
I think the next couple we will try and renovate for investments.

Who are the builders you have used each time? and a summary of your experiences with each?


Also thank you for the offer, I will definitely shout out if I have any questions about the building process and the forums!

The first one was a small builder I can’t remember the name. That was great. Easy and quality but only a 12 sq home. The second one was melistis homes. Can’t remember how to spell it lol they were quality and great too deal with. 3rd was porter Davis. No real hassles. Apart from them not wanting to seal the flooring upstairs in tiles area. When we asked them and said we would pay the extra. They wouldn’t do it. Cost us damage down the track. When toilets were blocked. It leaked through the roof. So I said I will never build with them again.

Then this recent one is metricon.

We had no real hassle with any of them during building. Except for Metricon. The admin side wasn’t great. It caused delays and they kept getting things wrong. Which they really need to revamp that side of it. The building was great. There was a bit of hassles here and there but nothing too major. It all comes down too the supervisor. Our ss was amazing. And so is some of the maintenance supervisors as well.

Whoever you go with. Make sure they walk you through the display. And tell you what is an upgrade and what you can choose.




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That sounds like fun. Renovating. I would so do something like that if I didn’t have a large family and hubby wasn’t running a business. Too be honest I would build again. Once you had a lot of kids. I believe you can do anything .


We did some renovating with the porter Davis one. I loved picking out the designs. And hubby I stalked them. We had 4 en-suites in that one. So we pulled all the tiles out. And put porcelain in 3 of the en-suites. Plus we repainted most of the house. That house was 47sq.


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Greetings Salty,

I'm pretty much in s a similar situation to you.

Waiting for 34A to title. Did you get answers to the questions you have posted ? I'd be really keen to know what you received ot perceived.

Cheers
MB

Hi Barlow,

I didn't really get many answers on my questions but I was able to find out a lot from the Facebook Group.
I suggest joining the group if you are a resident or owner in Saltwater Coast. It really gives you an insight into the community.

My home is a few months off being complete, so I will be living there soon and be able to provide more information then. Ill try and answer a few from my knowledge of visiting every week.

- the world renowned bad traffic?
Is bad. But the development of Dunnings and Palmers is meant to be the solution to the traffic issue. Personally I cant wait till they fix the whole road situation in Laverton (if ever??? surely on the cards though because it is just ridiculous going through there)
- the beautiful parks?
I really do love Crocodile Park and that whole Lake/Swamp park and its views of the city. Hopefully it is kept maintained over its lifetime.
- the amazing city views?
Was really hoping to get these views from my house but unfortunately they got built out (always thought they would but you can always dream right?!), But from the parks and the edge of the estate it just magnificent, and if you get the views from your house even better.
- the high renter to owner percentage?
Will have to wait and see but from what I can tell I think every house in the immediate vicinity of our house is a rental. Not good for the estate or values.
- the community facilities?
I will certainly be making use of these once we move in
- the body corporate?
Seem to be doing a good job on paper? Will wait and see how they cope with any grievances once moved in
- the land quality? (highly reactive soils)
Had to get bored piers for our slab, leads to costly site costs/slab cost
- the air quality? (does it smells?)
I used to work in the area and when we bought would head down there on hot days to do a bit of research. On hot days it was fine. Now that we have visited more often we have definitely found that it can smell a bit. Low tide and breeze blowing the right way on a warm day it becomes a bit on the nose. But that's beach living for you
- public transport?
There is a bus line which currently runs to the Community Center and I think the plan is to extend it further down Saltwater Prom (hopefully not too far, I don't want a bus stop outside my house!)
- land price?
Not sure what it is at now, hopefully more than I paid but highly doubtful.
- crime?
Off Facebook group, seems normal.
- driving to and from city/how long does it take?
No Idea yet

Hopefully that helps you!
Is 34A the last section to title? Is it far off?
Have you chosen your plan and builder?

Salty

Thanks for taking the time to respond Salty.
The titles are apparently next week
The most accommodative builder we got was Mimosa so far. How about you?

Hi`Sir Salty, are you still in the area? Has any of the issues you previously mentioned improved or gotten worse? How is the air quality and access to public transport? Doing research on areas to buy our first home and Saltwater was one of them. Thanks