THE ribbon has been cut at Heirloom Estate, the first major housing development in Swan Hill since Tower Hill, and it’s attracting external investment and developers.
As part of a recent event to mark the occasion, Swan Hill Rural City Council Mayor Cr Stuart King celebrated the confidence of out-of-town investors to develop Heirloom Estate, adding to the work of local developers to create stock for Swan Hill’s housing market.
“In the last 10 to 15 years council has been the only larger scale developer with the Tower Hill development, so it’s great to see the private market doing these types of developments,” Cr King said.
“They’ve invested a lot of money so we can look forward to the growth this enables.
“It’s an addition to the great efforts of local developers and something that we haven’t seen for a long time.”
Heirloom Estate has been about 18 months in the making, with the site on Coronation Avenue bought in December 2022, and infrastructure builds like roadways and streetlighting starting in May 2023.
Now, only eight blocks remain available from the 57-lot stage one release, and three allotments are set for construction.
The 52 stage two blocks are now available for purchase, with an additional four stages to come.
Ray White Swan Hill principal Cam Smits said so far 60 per cent of stage one properties were purchased by homeowners, with investors buying 40 per cent.
“It’s a good mix of homeowners and investors, which is good as we need more of both,” he said.
“We might see a bit of a shuffle in housing as we see people from town build their new dream home here (at Heirloom), and they’ll let go of something else in town and start to free properties up.”
Graham Wealth director Shane Graham said he’s excited about the choice the development provides for locals close to town.
“It’s very accessible, it’s got large areas and large streetscapes which is great, and a wide range of lot sizes for we can cater to people wanting to up- or downsize,” he said.
The variety of dwellings aligns with council’s housing strategy, which calls for more townhouses and units, and the development of apartment blocks.
“A variety of block sizes obviously lends itself to your standard suburban house if you like, we’re not talking the old fashioned quarter acre blocks or anything like that, but your larger 600-700 square metre blocks, but also some smaller blocks that lend themselves to townhouses and that type of development,” Cr King said.
“It’s a good opportunity for mix-use, mixed style of housing relatively close to the CBD and other facilities around town.”
