Appealing Packages To Help Build That Dream Home

Newcastle Herald

Saturday September 2, 2000

LOOK through a first home buyer's eyes at the choice of a worn weatherboard or a brick and tile house and land package to see the allure of brand, spanking new.

Much of Newcastle's housing stock is old and tired.

Go out a little further and for the same money there are some very appealing packages, made all the more attractive by the $7000 government first home owner's grant plus stamp duty exemptions.

One of these is Mirvac Home's newly released four-bedroom house and land package. Based on the Courtyard 4 design it is priced from a competitive $142,000 in an offer available until mid this month.

According to Mirvac Homes' marketing and sales director Gary Wood, the `from' price offers the house with a single garage but without driveway or landscaping on a block of land at Landcom's Melaleuca Estate, Metford.

He said the fixed-price offer, which included site costs, was also available on land at other Hunter estates including Landcom and private developments at Belmont, Hawks Nest, Maryland, Cessnock, Raymond Terrace, Fletcher's Nikkinba Ridge and Highland County; Riverview Ridge; Bolwarra Hts; Shamrock Hill, Ashtonfield; Somerset Park, Thornton; Morpeth Downs, and Roslyn Heights, Raymond Terrace.

Mr Wood said Mirvac could organise finance for buyers of the house and land package at $224 a week, based on a 7.8% bank loan over 30 years.

Another $14 a week provided a package including a concrete drive, front yard turfing, plush carpets and fly screens.

A 5% deposit needed to secure the house/land package was $7125, just over the First Home Owners Scheme grant of $7000.

Similar packages were available with other house designs, Mr Wood said.

Also for a limited period, Mirvac is offering $15,000 of inclusions at no extra cost.

The goodies include a mix of visible luxuries such as Smeg stainless steel automatic dishwasher, oven and cooktop and a ducted vacuum cleaning system and unseen inclusions such as external wall insulation.

The give-aways were available with the special offer Courtyard 4 house/land package according to Mirvac sales hostess Ros Clarke.

She works at the Maryland display centre off Minmi Rd where a $108,650 (without land) version of the Courtyard 4 which adds optional extras such as a double garage and solarium, is open for inspection daily. At its regular price the single garage version without land is from $91,990.

It is a design that makes for ideal family living.

The layout positions the kitchen in the centre of the house with a view over rumpus, family and adjacent meals area.

Another handy feature is the garage which comes with a drive-through door into the outdoor entertaining area so it can double for party use. From the garage there is also an internal door opening conveniently into the family room.

Enter the house and you step into a small foyer which opens into the formal living and compact dining room.

Front access to the other main living areas is through these two rooms.

The kitchen comes complete with a good array of cupboards and space for a microwave.

It offers a double sink positioned on the workbench overlooking the bright, airy family room and light-filled rumpus.

In the display version the rumpus is extended by an optional large solarium with a bay of windows. The family room provides sliding door access to the outside.

Off the kitchen is a passageway which includes a linen cupboard and leads to the laundry complete with a handy sliding door for easy access to the washing line.

Also off the passage is entry to the three smaller bedrooms, two of them with built-in robes.

Each is conveniently located for the family bathroom which comes with floor tiling plus a generous amount of wall tiles compared with many project homes. Another good feature is the separate toilet.

The master bedroom, accessed off the foyer, is not large but provides all the essential space.

It includes a roomy walk-in-robe complete with a door to hide any mess, a feature missing in many much more expensive homes.

It also offers an ensuite with toilet, shower, handbasin and vanity.

With a single garage the house will fit a 15metre wide block.

It offers 175.5sq metres, 20 squares, of space with the double garage.