fireeater

If you're thinking of renting, then come here on a short term lease, if that is possible. You'll then have the chance to see areas for yourself before committing to 6 months or a year. All the advice you get from this site, is still just advice. There's nothing that can beat your own feelings, and what one person loves, another may absolutely hate.

Good luck

Carl

fireeater

If it's busy on the freeway you could try cutting through the docklands. That's usually clear and it brings you out by Telstra Dome. Look at Melways pages 42-43.

BenandPam

As fireater said, we have been renting in Sanctuary Lakes since the beginning of May. Pam works in the CDB, so I take her to the train station at Laverton in the morning which takes 10-15 minutes. We haven't done the freeway in the rush hour so I can't help you there, but out of peak times it is very easy to get right into the heart of the City.

The whole Point Cook area is expanding massively, new homes are going up daily with plenty more land available. There are already some shops (Coles, Amcal, baker, butcher) opposite the entrance to Sanctuary Lakes, with another shopping precinct further up towards the Point Cook Road Freeway junction. If you get a look at the current Melways you will see that there is a proposed Point Cook Town Centre, several proposed schools and an improved road link to the Freeway at Hoppers Crossing. I can't tell you much about the local schools yet, although it is something we will have to think about for the future.

Sanctuary Lakes is more expensive than the rest of Point Cook to buy houses and land, but you get the use of the gym, pool, tennis courts and clubhouse. Membership to the golf course is extra, although we were very lucky and got it with the house. The course has already hosted a professional event, so it is fair to say that it is a decent track. The estate is about half finished, with the extension to the lake yet to really have any houses built around it. There is a regular supply of houses for sale as you will see from realestate.com.

So far we really like it here. There is the first event organised by the Sports & Social club this weekend, a family "Sports Day" and BBQ, with the plan being to organise more events, especially to have some kids clubs. The plans I have seen show that a childcare centre is to be built, and there is also a new recreational centre in the pipeline.

Ultimately I would say, come and have a look for yourselves. There are various land estates in Point Cook, and enough display homes to keep you very busy ( I speak from experience ). I think that things will continue to improve here in terms of facilities and infrastructure, so house values may well reflect that in the future. If you plan on coming to Sanctuary Lakes, let us know and we can have a coffee in Waterstones Cafe.

Michael Branagan-Harris

Fantastic- actually found someone in Sanctuary Lakes!!!! - looks like the sort of area that would suit us and our young family! would be nice to caht more about it on the phone - would you be happy to do this sometime? my private email address [email protected] - thanks Mike

fraser

Loads of good info, thanks to all we plan to rrive late August early September and will also be having a look at this area.

OzTennis

Great info. The plans that I saw also included a 4/5 star hotel to be built on the land just before the tennis courts - i.e. on the right going up to the clubhouse/rec club/car park. The golf clubhouse is also good for a coffee/meal - they don't bother with the members only thing (not with us and my parents on a quiet midweek anyway!).

At the very beginning of SL's we were deciding whether to buy there or at Williamstown and chose the latter. We still visit SL's each year and it is amazing to see how much it improves and expands each year.

I've told the story in another thread of how it was started by a Malaysian multi-millionaire. The land was originally the Cheetham Salt Works. This guy flew out to Tullamarine one day, was chaffeur driven to the site, had a brief look, bought it, flew back to Malaysia, signed up Greg Norman to put his name to the golf course and then the work began.

My father had a relative who owned a lot of the land to the west of the entrance to SL's. They sold off the land to the developers for a tiny fraction of it's value today but it seemed like a lot at the time.

A house and land package that we looked at originally in SL's wasn't much over $100K and I saw a similar one re-sell for over £500K this year. We haven't done too badly in Williamstown and we really like our place on the seafront with bay and CBD views so no regrets!

As said, now is a good time to get into these areas because SL's, Pt Cook, Hoppers etc are on the up.

OzTennis

BenandPam

Please don't tell me about house and land going for $100k, you could drive me to . I was chatting with our landlord and he told me that the land our house is built on cost him $88K . It is going to be interesting to see what effect the hotel has. Our landlord said that the intention is to make it any easy place to get to from the airport, giving people a choice of onsite facilities and easy access to the city.

Michael I will drop you an email, always happy to have a chat

Flying Banana

I'm looking to buy down that way later in the year as I currently work at the airport and the other place I might end up working in the future is Avalon so it's conveniently between the two. I was speaking to the agent I'm renting off of here in Glen Waverley at the moment and they reckon anywhere over that side of the bay is a good investment. The SE suburbs can't grow much further and still offer a sensible place to live if you work in towards the city. With the waterfront land and freeway already in place the agent reckoned it wouldn't be many years before the suburbs will be growing all down the west side of the bay.

romukmelau

we will probably be there at the same time - moving from Romsey Hants to Melbourne!!!

OzTennis

When I said not much over $100K, it wasn't, it was $133K but we are talking 1993 or thereabouts (double storey, 4 bedrooms, not waterfrontage though). The very same property we looked at was re-sold for $385K 4 or 5 years later and would be well over $500K no doubt now. It's always difficult to look into the future and imagine similar things happening but they usually do. The $400/$500K house and land package of today will hit 7 figures not too far down the track.

Yes, I'm sure the hotel is trying to tap into the golfing and leisure holiday market for wealthy Asians and interstaters. Land at Tulla, whisked away to SL's, golf, tennis, swim and leisure to your heart's content, pop into the city or down to Geelong and the GOR. A lot of the resorts in Queensland, closer to Japan, tap into the same market.

I wouldn't mind betting that the Malaysian who owns SL's either pinched the name from Sanctuary Cove or has an interest in it. I see that they have Adam Scott's name on the golf at SC.

http://www.sanctuarycove.com/

OzTennis

Pomster

there seems to be a fair few Western burbs people here... glad to know it is raining although I can't hear it as we are currently on hols in UK- at least our grass should be watered!

CasG

Been raining today as well - the weatherman seemed very happy about it....his lawn must have been looking a bit worse for wear too.

give us a shout when you get back if you fancy a night out - met with some others already within the vicinity, and plan to meet up again soon