I had what I might probably call the misfortune to take a drive into this area on the weekend. I was initially excited at the thought of wandering in and taking a "squiz", expecting to see a showcase, a paragon of wonderful home design, but that sooned turned to disappointment.
But, my opinions they may be, and I'm interested to know if anyone else has seen this area and what they thought of it.
For the sake of describing the area, this new housing community is located on the site of the former Pentridge Prison site - a portion of the prison is still operational as a remand centre, I believe.
One of the "unique" features (if you wish to call it that), is that there are a number of apartments and houses which back onto the original blue-stone walls of the remand compound (about 4-5 metres high). Bizarre.
The whole development is being constructed by West Homes. I inspected some of their display homes when we were looking for a PPOR 10 years ago, and they seemed well built and designed at the time.
I think having one developer develop an entire estate does nothing to give the estate character. It appeared as though there were perhaps 10 different housing designs in total, replicated and replicated. Sometimes with different brick colors or different render.
The entire estate looked "built-to-a-price". Cheap wire-cut bricks from what I could tell (eg. those red, cream, and buff colored ones) with a few parts rendered for "trendiness", colored concrete driveways (forget clay or large format pavers), etc.
I think the going prices for these properties are $400K+, and whilst I consider the land is somewhat valuable in Coburg (about 7-8kms from CBD), it does nothing to improve my belief that these properties offer value-for-money. Fact is, I didn't bother proceeding to find out the true prices because the area didn't appeal to me.
Edit: I checked http://www.pentridgevillage.com.au and its siteplan suggest the remand area of the prison will not stay that way (it may have already been closed down).
But, my opinions they may be, and I'm interested to know if anyone else has seen this area and what they thought of it.
For the sake of describing the area, this new housing community is located on the site of the former Pentridge Prison site - a portion of the prison is still operational as a remand centre, I believe.
One of the "unique" features (if you wish to call it that), is that there are a number of apartments and houses which back onto the original blue-stone walls of the remand compound (about 4-5 metres high). Bizarre.
The whole development is being constructed by West Homes. I inspected some of their display homes when we were looking for a PPOR 10 years ago, and they seemed well built and designed at the time.
I think having one developer develop an entire estate does nothing to give the estate character. It appeared as though there were perhaps 10 different housing designs in total, replicated and replicated. Sometimes with different brick colors or different render.
The entire estate looked "built-to-a-price". Cheap wire-cut bricks from what I could tell (eg. those red, cream, and buff colored ones) with a few parts rendered for "trendiness", colored concrete driveways (forget clay or large format pavers), etc.
I think the going prices for these properties are $400K+, and whilst I consider the land is somewhat valuable in Coburg (about 7-8kms from CBD), it does nothing to improve my belief that these properties offer value-for-money. Fact is, I didn't bother proceeding to find out the true prices because the area didn't appeal to me.
Edit: I checked http://www.pentridgevillage.com.au and its siteplan suggest the remand area of the prison will not stay that way (it may have already been closed down).
