Quoted message said:Ah, there's a couple of things there that makes the difference, you
moved into the Delfin administered area called Springfield Lakes, with
small blocks of land and a focus on cheap dwellings and sedimentation
dams as you say ;O) I live in Springfield...
Cheap dwellings? If you call my house cheap.... far out... ARRRGHHH!!! We actually paid a fair chunk for our house to get a quality building with quality fittings. Devine - now there's cheap cr@p. Not sure what the Delfin homes are like, but I'm not so sure I'd go near them anyway.
Quoted message said:Now that I'm done sounding like a stuck up snob I'll get to the point
;O) Springfield Lakes is being sold a lot more than Springfield itself,
plus as I said, the blocks are bigger at Springfield so I think there's
more focus on Investment properties and general rentals down by the
lakes than there is up in Springfield itself..
There is always going to be a focus on investment in new developments due to the depreciation benefits for investors. A friend of mine has lived in Forest Lake since day one and has only two rentals in her street now, as opposed to 15 when she first moved in.
The 'sedimentation dams' are almost a necessity when masterplanning communities these days (Northlakes, Forest Lake, Varsity Lakes - you get the idea). You pretty much wouldn't meet EPA guidelines without one (ie. without them, all the construction site runoff goes straight into Oxley Creek = not good). Put it this way, another 5 years, and the old end of Springfield would have had a sedimentation dam as well. The added benefit of the lakes is that once construction is over with and actual sedimentation takes place (or, perhaps, if a couple of tonnes of coagulant was to be dumped into them), they actually look quite pretty. Now if only developers would take the initiative to implement other environmentally responsible strategies while they're at it.
The reason the blocks are smallers is a result of escalating land prices, and probably the fact that a lot of people (like me) don't have much time for gardening. If blocks were to be in the 600m² range (standard small block), let alone bigger, land alone would cost $200,000 minimum (and who'd want to move 28km out of town and pay that much for land alone?). In order to make it reasonably affordable, the average block needs to be around the 400m² mark. I quite like the idea of what they have created in Springfield Lakes, but I think at the end of the day, investment in these sorts of areas needs to be restricted to certain pockets - not planted sporadically.
I'll take a step off my soapbox now.
Quoted message said:Unfortunately you also get all the services but I suppose that's life.
What services?!
Quoted message said:Tell me about it... we've got one of those kids in hotted up cars next
door. Except this guy is in his 20's (in my opinion, old enough to
know better) and said car is a Toyota MR2 which is started at 5am every
morning (about 20 minutes before we get up), then flogged down the
street.
Quoted message said:Oooh, see I guess I just don't identify with those guys, all I can say
is that they're a pain in the *ss, that's what we had in the house next
to us before the current tenants, except he was running a bloody
mechanics workshop on the front lawn, always 5 or more dead cars
sitting around there, killed off everything green in that front yard 🙁
I'd be complaing to the council pronto... and regularly at that. I'm a fairly tolerant person (alright.. maybe I'm not!), but when it comes to respect for those around me, I get really sh!tty. As far as I'm concerned, people should at the very least keep their front yard nice out of respect for their neighbours. But some people just couldn't give a dang.
Quoted message said:it must be that last bit before the Springfield exit that I'm thinking off,
and now that I think about it I think you're probably right, but I'll look ;O)
It's not that bad - by the time I get to that point, I'm thinking only about food and bed so I barely even notice it.
