Canopi Valley Lake development to bring compact living to Essendon

Developers Red.C and MAB Corporation are set to build affordable three-bedroom homes to a multimillion-dollar pocket of Essendon North.

Canopi Valley Lake will comprise more than 100 detached and semi-detached three-bedroom, two-storey homes on a 20,000-square-metre site, all with two bathrooms and two car spaces. The first release of 23 is set to launch in mid-November, and Red.C co-director Cameron Alderson says 220 people have already registered their interest.

Prices range from $575,000 to $599,000, which Alderson says is very affordable for the area, which is primarily made up of multi-million dollar properties. Block sizes range from 110 square metres to 210 square metres, and the houses will range from 150 to 200 square metres.

The median sale price for houses in Essendon North is $808,250, according to RP Data. In Essendon the median house sale price is $915,000, and in Essendon West the median sale price for houses is $735,000.

“Our homes will be priced quite competitively,” Alderson says. “It’s a brand-new price point for the area. Our homes are not as large, so we’ve put a lot of energy into making sure there’s no wasted space in the homes.”

“All the bedrooms are full size, but the living zone is one open plan area, and that’s where the efficiency is. They’re just compact, efficient, very liveable homes,” he says.

Canopi Valley Lake is located within VicUrban’s masterplanned Valley Lake Estate, comprising 550 land lots. Of these, about 200 are now occupied homes. VicUrban has built a lake, boardwalk and nearby parkland.

Red.C recently developed a similar project in Footscray called Canopi Lae Street, and Alderson says he expects the balance of buyers for Canopi Valley Lake to be evenly split between owner-occupiers and investors, as it was in Footscray.

“A lot of them are young professional families, start-up couples, single mums with kids or just a small family,” he says. “Tenants end up being a similar profile.”

The Canopi Lae Street properties sold for between $475,000 and $625,000 in late 2009 early 2010.

Canopi Valley Lake will have a display centre in mid-November. Construction is set to begin in March 2012 and is expected to be completed in the middle of 2013.

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