Spencer Street housing plan to be “classy”

A landowner is moving on a massive plot of prime land in Bunbury with a 44-home development on Spencer Street going through approvals.

The high-density development will see single and two-storey homes plus public open space areas on a more than 1.6ha block of land which has been sitting vacant for several years at 254 and 256 Spencer Street.

It is hoped the new estate will be in construction by early next year.

Summit South West is managing the project and general manager David Hunt said it was an exciting and unique development for Bunbury.

“We’ve tried to make sure we incorporate some nice features such as high ceilings and probably make them a bit classier than what people are probably used to seeing in small lot products,” Mr Hunt said.

“The area there is fantastic, it’s just so close to town, easy access to a number of places including the shopping centre just down the road. It’s just a great spot, it’s probably something Bunbury hasn’t had in a long time.”

“It’ll be a classy development, we’re not doing it by halves, it will be very well done and we’ve got some parkland there, some POS (public open space) in the middle and plenty of parking.”

Mr Hunt said it was a “fantastic” time for developers to take advantage of opportunities in Bunbury and he predicted some real growth in the next couple of years.

“The market in the Bunbury region in particular has been fairly stagnant now probably since 2006 as far as pricing and if you look at the last 200 years of Australian property history, it’s not going to sit longer than 12 to 14 years,” he said.

“And you’re starting to see that already, the pressure’s building.”

“We’ve still got low interest rates, I think consumer confidence is improving ... in the last few years, Bunbury itself has been extremely positive in terms of the council,” he said.

“And you can really start to see things happening, so I think we’re definitely on an upward trend.”

Mayor Gary Brennan said the development was “fantastic” for the Bunbury community.

“We’re always trying to increase our rate base rather than increase rates, so again it’s a fantastic opportunity,” Mr Brennan said. “It should be a good quality residential development.”