News Articles & Media Releases

06/01/10
New home range are little gems
Writer: Gemma Nisbet
Publication: The New Homes Guide – The West Australian
Section: Industry News

Homebuyers Centre is tackling the issue of affordability with its new range of homes, the Gem series.

Prices for houses in the range start from $78,790 and go up to $107,640.

“This is all about getting first-homebuyers into the market as effectively as we can,” sales and marketing manager Jared Stone said.

He said theGem series filled a gap in the market for compact, affordable homes for first-homebuyers that could be built on green-tile blocks. The range includes 10 designs, all named after gemstones. Three, four, five-bedroom options are available and each home has been designed around a central kitchen, living and dining area.

Mr Stone said the homes in the series were designed to fit on smaller blocks, reflecting the trend towards smaller land parcels, while their size and affordability were in step with the fact that financial institutions had tightened their lending criteria since the financial crisis.

“When money was being freely lent, people could have bigger homes and the thinking was that bigger was better, but now people are buying for what they need and are not having all of these extra rooms that they have to maintain,” he said.

Despite the increased difficulty in securing credit, Mr Stone said that now was a good time for first-homebuyers to enter the housing market, with the $7000 first-homebuyers grant, first-homebuyer stamp duty concessions and low interest rates making for favourable conditions.

“The sooner that first-homebuyers get into the market the better,” he said. “Prices aren’t going to get any cheaper and the industry cannot build enough houses to keep up with demand. Land availability is also going to become an issue, so their options aren’t going to get any better than they are now.”