These are the things we though were important to us:
- Good position- a quite street, on a straight part of the street, not a bend, not near a corner, preferably close to either school, shops, parks or all of these.
- Not opposite parkland- there had been a a lot of house robberies around parkland in our old suburb of Seven Hills, they would sit in the park till people went out then break in.
- Facing North or South - just easier to arrange a living area in these parts of most house designs
- Size- at least 450sqm
- Price- under $300K
- No easements- no sewer, padmounts or anything else within the block boundaries or make it hard to site the house.
- No community levies- we didnt want to pay ongoing fees for facilities we probably wouldnt use
We looked at Pemulwuy both Nelsons Ridge and Lakewood. Both had fairly small blocks for fairly steep prices but the main concern was how close the houses were to each other. I went to visit a friend who was renting in Nelsons Ridge and not only could I hear their next door neighbour in the toilet I could see them too. Ick to claustrophobic for me.
We also looked West to Waterside (out near Penrith) block size and price were good but travelling to work with all the other traffic was not a nice option. Other concerns were community levies and having grown up in the Penrith area as a kid I remember very bad flooding and was a bit concerned living in the middle of a lake no matter how good the flood relief plans were.
We considered the south west from Middleton Grange and all the way down to Spring Farm but we didnt feel we would be able to achieve the same property growth that other areas could offer.
So that led me back to where it all started at The Ponds and Kellyville Ridge. It was my fault (Min) that this whole process started as I went for a drive while Andy was playing cricket and stumbled across display houses that got me thinking.
After all the location criteria had been met. The blocks were also the best value for money for size that we had seen, with the public school already built, close to shops & parks.
We highlighted 3 areas on the Masterplan that were our preferred options. What is now Waterfall 6 & 7, Waterlily next to the display centre and Waterlily off Teague St. We started watching the land releases in Jan 09 and aimed to sell our house by Jun 09 moving in the Andys parents until our house was built.
Andy was adamant that we would not deposit on land until we had sold our house but I wasn't going to let a good block go if one became available :)
We knew people were camping out for blocks so we knew once a good one came up we needed to get ready to go.
In March 09 the land was being release weekly to fortnightly and in the last week of April 09 we recieved an email for one of the releases on our favourites list.
It was for Waterlily 1E, just off Teague St in a cul de sac, with wide blocks (up to 18m) but not very deep (only 26 m). Our pick of the block was Lot 1211, closely followed by 1210 and 1212.
That week it rained every day, quite heavily at times too. I think that was a major factor in getting to be 5th on the list when we arrived late on the Friday afternoon to camp. One hour after we arrived the person in number 1 spot took a resale block which moved us up to 4.
Camping was fun, everyone there was really friendly mostly young couples or young families and we knew that this would be a great street to live in.
After a very uncomfortable night sleeping in the car we went into the sales office at 10am to find out the prices and go in one at a time to select our blocks. The blocks ranged in price from $285K to $325K, ours fit within our budget at $295K for a 481sqm block 17.8m wide by 27m deep.
We had already spoken to everyone before us on the list and found out they didnt want our first choice, so we just needed to hope they didnt change their mind.
Luckily we got the one we wanted Lot 1211 Glide Place was our! It ticked every box on our ideal requirements list (as above).
With an interesting twist this release sit outside of the suburb boundaries of The Ponds we actually will live in the suburb of Kellyville Ridge. This means a 2155 postcode which aligns us with Kellyville and Beaumont Hills suburbs these have higher property prices and cheaper insurance premiums.
All of the houses behind our block were also built and they were all single storey so we would have good privacy.
Now onto the next stages finding a house to fit on the land and waiting for the land to register which was due on Aug 09.
It didnt actually register till Dec 09.
