Villawood: Geelong's developer of choice

COVID has shown in stark fashion just how high a value people place on family and community – and lifestyle.

Lockdown has kept so many of us apart, highlighting just how much people need people. It’s also hit our lifestyles hard.

So it’s a very telling story that, through the pandemic, property sales rates in Geelong have powered ahead of Melbourne’s. Buyers are voting with their feet.

Even more telling is how the Geelong market has been dominated by buyers seeking out the community and lifestyle attributes offered by Villawood Properties.

With its resort-style residents, its cutting-edge playgrounds, parks, open space and its focus on bringing neighbours together as friends, Villawood has shown itself the clear developer of choice for discerning purchasers.

Villawood’s Geelong presence boasts the award-winning Armstrong Mount Duneed, the upmarket Wandana above Highton, Coridale spearheading the new Lara West precinct and Leopold’s highly-popular Estuary.

Villawood’s regional sales dominance across these projects is all about the sense of community designed into each. Quality, affordability, delivery and reputation have equally underscored Villawood’s performance through COVID.

Villawood believes there’s much more to building a community than producing allotments.

Which is why it designs places where people can readily meet – resort-style residents’ clubs with pools, gyms, cafes, family and function spaces, sports courts and more; top-line playgrounds and sprawling open space, extensive tracks and pathways; wetlands and giant signature community artworks.

It arranges major community events for residents to meet up and make new friends, for kids to make friends. It sponsors dozens of community groups from the Geelong Cats to schools, cricket, life saving, swimming and family networks.

Villawood has a unique Care Worker Support Program which offers $20K lot price discounts, and sets aside one in every five lots, for nurses, police, paramedics, firefighters, teachers and personal carers.

More broadly, it spent over $2.4 million in the past year on philanthropic pursuits. Chief among these are charity house-and-land package auctions each year for the Royal Children’s Hospital and Brisbane’s Little Mater Miracles.

Another unique aspect of Villawood is its donation of a bushland block to the State forest system at Bendigo for every residential block it sells. It’s up to 578 hectares at present – the equivalent of 290 MCGs.

So it’s perhaps not so surprising more than 3000 Geelong families already call Villawood home in eight communities across Geelong. Or that Villawood has picked up no less than five major industry awards in the past few years:

ARMSTRONG – Winner UDIA Excellence Award Community Engagement 2018
ARMSTRONG – Winner UDIA Judges Award Excellence in Landscaping 2018
ARMSTRONG – Winner UDIA Excellence Award Best Master-planned Development 2017
ARMSTRONG – Winner UDIA Landscape Award Green Street Design 2016
UDIA Young Professional of the Year Award 2019

Villawood’s Care Worker Support Program has also been shortlisted for this year’s UDIA Marketing Excellence Award.