Noosa heads MICHELLE SINGER
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A designed life
A high-end housing estate that got off to a rocky start now has everything to offer buyers
he $400m luxury housing estate Elysium to the west of Noosa Heads’ famous Hastings Street, was an ambitious plan. Launched in 2004 by Sydney-based developer Consolo Property, the 27ha site adjacent to the Noosa Springs Golf Course, the project was to be a 189-home estate with properties priced between $1.25m and $2.65m. Key to the execution was the commissioning of a dozen or more of Australia’s biggest architectural firms hired to design these world-class homes. But it wasn’t to be for the sleepy resort town, which now is suffering a major COVID-19 outbreak. The GFC struck in 2008 and the project collapsed, with administrators appointed before home builder AVJennings bought the project in 2011. For Noosa Heads real estate agent Sean Cary, it was an opportunity to sell what he considered a brilliant concept. “I always knew it was going to work; it was just a matter of timing and price,” he says, having called AVJennings asking for a job the day the deal was announced. Back then only a handful of the dream homes were complete, several more were unfinished and 158 blocks of vacant land were yet to be sold. “When AVJennings took it over, Noosa was still recovering from the GFC and it extended here a lot longer than it did in other areas,” Cary says. “It wasn’t until the end of 2012 that we started to see signs of a recovery. We thought the land was going to walk out the door because it was Noosa and well-priced, but we didn’t factor in all the negativity and uncertainty hanging around at that time.” The prices of the homes were slashed to $1.2m, but even then the market was prepared to pay only around $800,000 to $900,000. “It took two years; it was a hard slog,” Cary says. A big turning point was the completion of Elysium’s $3m recreation centre, with its lap pool, gym, dual tennis courts, playground and dog park, in October 2012. It instilled confidence in buyers and remains a highly valued perk among residents, including former property developer Geoff Brinckman and his wife Anne, who were the first buyers in 2011. Having purchased a Bligh Voller Nield-designed property at 22
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