Promising an incredible lifestyle precinct in increasingly popular Footscray, Victoria Square is tapping into the area’s energetic transformation.

Developer Growland is creating the kind of mixed-use precinct from which both new residents and the existing community will benefit. And the scale is one that’s unprecedented in Footscray.

Says Ronald Chan, Growland CEO, “The Joseph Road precinct, and Footscray at large is undergoing an intense transformation, with $2.6 billion worth of public and private investment planned through to 2021. Growland’s promise is that Victoria Square will deliver a vibrant new precinct through will add to the urban character of Footscray.”

Once completed, Victoria Square will include six residential towers, underpinned by a vibrant mix of retail to add genuine lifestyle value to the area.

Explains Mr Chan, “We know how important the culture of Footscray is. That’s why we’ve chosen to integrate 3,000sqm of retail into Victoria Square to support its future growth, adding restaurants, cafes, and a shopping precinct for the wider community.”

This level of retail and amenity will have an additional benefit to the area, as a catalyst to boosting the local economy and increasing job opportunities.

The types and price range of Victoria Square’s apartments will encourage a diverse mix of residents to the project. Priced well below Melbourne’s median for a one-bedroom apartment, the one bedroom plus study options start at just $298,000 and ensure Footscray’s established residents are not priced out of the development.

Prices at the affordable end of the property market could rise by up to $18,000 from July in Victoria, when stamp duty concessions for first-home buyers begin, according to a prominent buyer’s agent.

The state government has ­announced a housing affordability package that will remove stamp duty for first-home buyers for properties up to $600,000, and offer stamp duty concessions for properties worth between $600,000 and $750,000.

But concerns have been raised that putting stamp duty savings in buyers’ pockets could mean they are able to bid more for properties, driving up prices and pushing home ownership further out of reach for those still trying to save a deposit.

WBP Property Group executive chairman Greville Pabst said that given first-home buyers in the state already receive a stamp duty concession of 50 per cent, they would be set to save the remainder from July 1 for properties under $600,000.

He estimates that prices will rise by about 2 to 3 per cent as a result­. For a $600,000 property, a 3 per cent rise would add $18,000.

“You give it to them, they’re going to spend it,” he told The ­Australian.

“And particularly in regional areas … because not only do they get stamp duty savings, there’s also the addition of the grant,” he said, noting that the First Home Owner Grant for new homes will double to $20,000 from mid-year.

The state government also ­announced plans for an extra 100,000 lots in Melbourne’s growth corridor as part of the package earlier this year.

In the midst of a heated debate over housing affordability, developer Growland believes it has struck the right balance between the scale of its $600 million Victoria Square development and attractive amenity to be able to offer its one-bedroom apartments at an “affordable” $298,000. This is well under Melbourne’s one bedroom median price of $330,000, according to CoreLogic.

Also, 90 per cent of the 900 apartments to be built in the project will be under $600,000, thus qualifying for the Victorian first home buyers’ grant which comes into effect on 1 July.

“The timing is good,” says Project Director James Harrison. “Not only was the project designed at a time when the industry believed it would be subject to new design rules setting a 50sq m minimum for one-bedders, but the value is even greater given virtually all first home buyers of these apartments will qualify for the grant.”

The Victorian government didn’t in the end proceed with implementation of that 50 sq m limit, but Growland is proceeding anyway and the one-bedders will be comfortably over that minimum at 61 sq m.

Construction starts on the first two towers containing 400 apartments “at the end of the year,” says Harrison.

Growland’s ability to offer its apartments at an affordable price has been helped by the fact that the group bought the site in Footscray, in Melbourne’s inner west, five years ago, at a price well below what it would have cost today. “We got it before the big uplift,” says Harrison, “and this is a key factor in us being able to offer the apartments at very competitive prices.”

The first stage of Footscray’s new $600 million project, Victoria Square, is providing one of the last remaining opportunities to enter the popular inner ring suburbs at an affordable price.

Victoria Square’s first tower is offering 61 square metre one-bedroom plus study apartments at $298,000 – well below Melbourne’s median price for a one bedroom unit, which according to CoreLogic currently sits at $330,000.

According to the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, Melbourne’s median unit price rose to over $585,000 in the December 2016 Quarter. As prices shoot up in Melbourne’s north, south and east, attention is turning towards Melbourne’s western suburbs.

Footscray in particular has emerged as a highly desirable area to first home buyers and astute investors who are recognising the inherent opportunity in its location.

Urbis research stated Footscray has seen the lowest median unit price but the highest annual unit price growth over the last decade when compared with other suburbs in Melbourne’s inner ring such as Brunswick, Richmond, and Yarraville.

Growland CEO Ronald Chan, who is the developer behind Victoria Square, said as affordability becomes an increasingly pressing social issue, projects such as Victoria Square were a vital piece to solving the puzzle as they provide achievable price points for first time buyers.

“The key to addressing Melbourne’s affordability lies in high rises like Victoria Square – strong, modern communities are created through high density living,” Mr Chan said.

Affordability is the buzz word, and has been for some time in regards to Melbourne’s property scene. It’s quite hard to escape the plethora of articles on the pressing issue at the moment, and understandably so.

One such article in this week’s AFR goes in depth on the housing affordability issue (link is external), touching upon both the detached housing and apartment sector, and the differences between the two from a local perspective. In this malaise of unaffordability, one developer has taken steps to position their pending development as a genuine opportunity to secure an inner-city apartment at an affordable price.

Growland’s first stage within Footscray’s Victoria Square development will see 61sqm one-bedroom plus study apartments priced at $298,000. Any buyer actively looking to enter the market will be aware that the apartment size versus price outcome at Victoria Square is skewed in favour of the buyer.

In a recent media release, Growland’s CEO Ronald Chan addressed the affordability quandary:

The key to addressing Melbourne’s affordability lies in high rises like Victoria Square – strong, modern communities are created through high density living. It is vital that the next generation has access to quality homes, with considered, long lasting architecture, but at a price that is achievable in relation to today’s median household incomes.

Young people also need to be able to live at a reasonable distance to where they work. Melbourne’s employment precinct has traditionally been concentrated to the CBD, meaning the inner ring suburbs are incredibly important to Melbourne’s future growth.

This is the first release since the highly-anticipated project received masterplan approval in 2016, under its previous name, Joseph Place. The first tower is offering 61sqm one-bedroom plus study apartments at $298,000 – well below Melbourne’s median price for a one bedroom unit, which according to CoreLogic currently sits at $330,000.

According to the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, Melbourne’s median unit price rose to over $585,000 in the December 2016 Quarter. As prices shoot up in Melbourne’s north, south and east, attention is turning towards Melbourne’s western suburbs.

Footscray, in particular, is rapidly transforming into a vibrant, activated area; highly desirable to first home buyers and astute investors that are recognising the inherent opportunity in its location.

Research by think tank Urbis states Footscray has seen the lowest median unit price but the highest annual unit price growth over the last decade when compared with other suburbs in Melbourne’s inner ring such as Brunswick, Richmond, and Yarraville.

Ronald Chan, CEO of Growland, the developer behind Victoria Square, says as affordability becomes an increasingly pressing social issue, projects such as Victoria Square are a vital piece to solving the puzzle as they provide achievable price points for first time buyers.

“The key to addressing Melbourne’s affordability lies in high rises like Victoria Square – strong, modern communities are created through high density living,” said Chan.

Melbourne developer Growland has joined the rush of Asian-backed developers moving out of the cooling inner-city apartment market and into the strongly performing outer suburban land market after paying more than $70 million for a site in the city’s west.

Growland, founded in 2013 by architect Stephen Yau and entrepreneur Bruce Chan and with a $1.3 billion pipeline of projects, paid a steep $1.5 million a hectare for the 62-hectare site at 1030 Dohertys Road, Tarneit – about 28 kilometres west of the Melbourne CBD.

The rural property, which sits within the new suburb of Tarneit North, has the capacity for between 900 and 1000 lots with end value of around $240 million.

Title deeds show the current owner as Mounira El Houli with a company called A1 Wirrebee Birds & Stock Feeds operating from the same address.

Land prices have shot up in Melbourne’s west, delivering massive windfalls to rural landowners who by luck or design have found themselves owning property zoned for residential use.

Last year, Chinese high-rise developer New Sky moved into the house and land market, paying $60 million for a 64-hectare housing project in Tarneit with approval for 800 lots, Chinese real estate giant Dahua paid $350 million for a huge land bank in Melbourne’s west and China’s Fucheng Group acquired the last remaining parcel of the Baillieu family’s vast Woodhouse Station for about $100 million.

Developers and builders are copping hits into the tens of thousands of dollars by covering stamp duty for their first-home buyer customers, in order to avoid a lull in the market ahead of the official tax cut later this year.

First home buyers can now save stamp duty – up to $15,000 – on a string of Victorian apartment projects and house and land packages, getting a head start on the state government’s cuts which will come into affect across the board on July 1.

It follows an announcement a fortnight ago by the Andrews government that it would waive stamp duty for all first-home buyers on properties worth up to $600,000 in the new financial year. The move will cease the current stamp duty saving offered to all off the plan purchasers, including investors.

It is understood many investor-driven developers are moving project release dates forward, in order to to capture investor dollars before the tax cut is removed.

The announcements have been met with mixed feelings by the development industry, given incentives will now fall far more heavily in favour of owner-occupier projects than investor-driven developments.

For those developers and builders who have a large portion of their projects tied to the first-home buyer segment, the July 1 commencement date presented a potential hiatus for the market. Some newly released developments saw an immediate drop in inquiries from first timers.

Porter Davis, which will pay the stamp duty for Victorian first home buyers who use the builder for land contracts, brought forward marketing plans to target first-home buyers by several months so it could ride the wave of interest generated by the announcements.

A long-awaited football win for the Western Bulldogs is not the only sign of change in the once proud blue-collar neighbourhood. The suburb itself is transforming — and quickly.

Footscray is undergoing an apartment boom, with more than 1350 units approved by local council in 2015. It is a figure ten times the amount approved in 2013, building data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows. And, as the towers go up, an affluent crowd is moving in.

A suburb built by its multicultural residents, Footscray has for decades opened its arms to newly arrived migrant communities, including Italian, Yugoslavian,Vietnamese and East African. Amid concern about the future for those very communities, it is welcoming change from the next generation; those buying into the suburb’s mushrooming medium and high density apartment stock.

Nicole Mayo is among a wave of young professionals writing the suburb’s next chapter. The 33-year-old food sales representative, who rents in St Kilda, recently bought her first apartment in Footscray.

“Footscray is where St Kilda was years ago,” Ms Mayo said. “I hope [Barkly Street] looks like Acland Street in ten years. I hope there’s more alfresco cafes and bars where you can go and have a drink.”

She is confident her two bedroom apartment, found in boutique development The Hugo, will be a better investment over time than its high rise equivalents being built in Footscray’s CBD, along the Maribyrnong River and even around the Whitten Oval.

The sheer number of new apartments being approved is significant compared to the rest of Melbourne, RMIT University senior planning lecturer Joe Hurley said, but planning policy in the City of Maribyrnong had long been in place to encourage such intensification.

“Footscray is the right place for this kind of development,” Dr Hurley said, pointing to existing infrastructure, including public transport. “You have a council that has written in policy an expectation that there is capacity to grow and its hasn’t been met until recently.”

Dean Johnson, director of Sweeneys Yarraville, has worked in the inner west real estate market for 30 years. He said the demographic of Footscray had changed with each wave of migration and was already transitioning into its next phase.

Many of the residents who had lived there for years were now selling up to move further west, into areas like St Albans and Caroline Springs, he said.

“People are selling their smaller homes in Footscray, cashing in and buying a larger house further out,” he said.

But such a displacement, or the gentrifyication of Footscray, has experts concerned.

“I wouldn’t advocate gentrification, I would caution it,” Dr Hurley said. “One of the important policy questions with places like Footscray is, what kind of development and housing options are available for a wide cross section of people?”

Denis Nelthorpe, chief executive of WEstjustice, said he was concerned about the effects of gentrification on newly arrived communities, who had traditionally been drawn to Footscray by family or cultural links.

“They are now being pushed into the outer regions of Wyndham, Melton and far reaches of Brimbank, where services are a lot harder to access,” Mr Nelthorpe said.

“Even areas around Braybrook and Sunshine are also beginning to gentrify as well, it probably won’t be too long before the whole of Maribyrnong has gentrified.”

City of Maribyrnong mayor Cameron McDonald was confident demand from young professionals and families would meet supply.

“It’s not like City Road [in Southbank] or the IKEA precinct in Richmond … there is a lot of existing infrastructure that I think that mitigates a lot of the risk,” Cr McDonald said.

He said the new population of young people coming in with discretionary cash would only benefit the suburb and help it shed its stigma.

“These people actually drive change, they are demanding, they have good disposable income,” he said.

“The stereotypical Footscray will fade away, once these towers are finished and once the people are moving in, I think we’ll see lots of dramatic change.”

Development group Growland have launched a $600 million mixed-use masterplanned urban village at Footscray.

Growland plans to develop its 13,500 sqm site at 8 Hopkins St into six buildings comprising 1000 apartments, a potential hotel and 4,000 sqm of retail space. It is expected to accommodate more than 3000 residents and 30 new retailers.

The precinct, designed by award-winning Melbourne architectural firm Kavellaris Urban Design (KUD) will be named Joseph Place.

KUD director Killy Kavellaris said the vision for the site was to create a vibrant urban zone that encouraged interaction in its public and private spaces. “The aim is to do something different and bring to Footscray a new style of living that celebrates connection and resonates with Footscray’s existing multicultural heritage and established food scene,” he said.

Growland was founded by property entrepreneur Bruce Chan and Melbourne architect Stephen Yau. Yau said Footscray was the same distance from the city as Richmond and was currently undergoing the same transformation Richmond underwent some years ago. “The inner west has been recognised as one of Melbourne’s most undervalued opportunities and is due for rapid growth over the next two to five years. The future growth potential of Footscray is huge and Joseph Place signals a renaissance in the area,” Yau said.

Pending approval, construction on Joseph Place hopes to commence in early 2017, with the first apartment building due to launch for sale over the coming months.