LAVINGTON GARDENS

We had a land bank adjacent to the Lavington Lodge Aged Care facility that we had built, and we obtained a DA from Albury Council to build 20 two bedroom retirement homes on these sites. These were to be built in 4 stages of 5 houses a stage. We marketed the first stage under loan license agreements under the Retirement Village Act. However this coincided with the Global Financial crisis and retirees felt vulnerable to falling asset values and income. We quickly changed our strategy to amending the project to strata title, thus addressing the issue of security as well as being able to market to the wider community.

Despite the Global Financial Crisis, and the prevailing uncertainty the work we had done in the wider community in marketing over the years paid off. We had a data base of over 200 potential leads and we were successful in selling the first five units in six months.

From our marketing we came to realize a number of improvements that we had to undertake. The main ones were to have a third bedroom, and wider garages. Released from the need to have wheel chair access and a special fit-out for retirees we were able to accomplish these changes without adding significantly to the cost.

We have presold the next stage of 4 houses and are currently into marketing the 3rd stage of 5 houses.