Still strong: Apartment and house launches a hit with owner occupiers

More than 100 owner occupiers have reserved apartments at Greenland and GH Australia’s first launch of its much anticipated $1.6 billion apartment project Park Sydney in inner city Sydney, reflecting continued strength in the apartment market.

The location of the project  was attractive to many owner occupiers looking for homes, Greenland assistant manager Kang Xue said.

“I think it’s very good results for the first day … the uniqueness of the project has attracted owner occupier attention,” Mr Xue said. “Fifty people walked without an appointment to reserve apartments.”

 Deposits of $5000 were taken from the 100-plus interested buyers. Contracts will exchange at the end of this month and early next month.

Buyers at first launch of Park Sydney. Supplied

The group only launched locally, so there were few foreign buyers.

A steady stream of buyers walked through the Park Sydney display suite on Saturday and Sunday. About 300 apartments out of the total 1000 units were opened for reservation in the stage-one release.

WMK Architecture in Sydney has been chosen to design this stage, but there will be about five more design competitions to bring together a varied group of architects to the project.

The seven-hectare project in Erskineville is one of the last remaining masterplanned residential and retail community developments within four kilometres of the Sydney CBD. Different to recent residential developments, the project is low density and will boast a fully fledged shopping centre.

GH Australia first acquired the site in 2014 for $380 million but Chinese-backed Greenland went into partnership with the group last May to get the project off the ground, which will also include a commercial child care centre and a 7400sq m public park.

There was also a lot of owner-occupier action in the house-and-land sector, with 71 first-home buyers buying house and land packages at Stockland’s Willowdale project in Denham Court, 44 kilometres southwest of the Sydney CBD. 

In the latest release of its 350-hectare and 3200-lot masterplanned community on the weekend, first-home buyers bought lots of between 252sq m to 528sq m in size, priced between $269,000 and $475,000.

With a house build, first-home buyers would pay about $640,000, lower than Sydney’s $1.1 million median house price.

“Housing affordability is a critical issue in Sydney, and we’re determined to not only keep the Great Australian Dream alive, but to make it an achievable reality for young first home buyers,” Stockland residential chief executive Andrew Whitson said.
Read more: http://www.afr.com/real-estate/still-strong-apartment-and-house-launches-a-hit-with-owner-occupiers-20170507-gvzq5q