Building Gas-Free: It's happening now, says Villawood

Gas-free homes are being built now en masse in Melbourne’s strongest and emerging growth corridors, and interstate, development giant Villawood Properties said today.

As government and industry alike strive to boost greener energy use with energy-rate mandates, renewable kitchen and other initiatives, the award-winning greenfields developer is already years ahead of the curve.

Villawood’s 2500-lot Redstone community at Sunbury in Melbourne’s burgeoning northwest is completely gas-free. The developer’s 2500-lot Kimberley estate, launching in February, again at Sunbury, will be gas-free as well. So too are several new communities in South Australia’s Adelaide – 1700 at William Lakes, 1500 at Oakden Rise and another 700 at Seacliff.

“These are big numbers and they are really setting the pace right now – not years in the future – for cleaner, greener, more sustainable housing,” Villawood CEO Alan Miller said.

“Gas-free is cheaper, it’s better for the planet and healthier for families and young children.

“The Climate Council supports gas-free housing. The Grattan Institute has suggested replacing gas with electricity.

“The thing is, while everyone’s talking about it, we’re doing it at Villawood. We’re actually doing it now. And we’ve been doing it for some time.

“We have builder partners who are right across this, and they’re designing beautiful homes you can buy right now.

“People who are concerned about the planet and their energy bills really don’t have to wait a minute more. The solutions are here, now.”

Villawood prides itself on its sustainability record, which includes 7-star energy precincts it introduced two years ahead of the National Construction Code (NCC) 7-star mandate for October 2023 and four ahead of the Green Building Council of Australia’s campaign for NCC all-electric by 2025.

In addition to its gas-free and 7-star greenfield projects, Villawood installed the first mainstream microgrid network to power housing and a large community club, at its Rathdowne project in Wollert. It is driving to educate the broader building industry on the benefits and opportunities of zero-emission thermal housing.

Its track record in opening the way for mainstream developers to pursue stronger sustainability is prodigious. Villawood donates a block of land to State forest for every residential lot it sells, totalling some 720 hectares over the past decade.

Its 460-lot Aquarevo community offers a 70% reduction in water use and 60% in non-renewables with high-tech solar batteries – with its final stage a 7-star precinct. It boasts a prestigious UDIA environmental excellence award.

Other efforts include low-energy street lighting, recycled timber and aggregates, low embedded energy playgrounds, low water-use sustainable landscaping, Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) principles, significant wetlands, high-tech run-off and stormwater management, extensive tree-planting – even its survey stakes and pegs have financed tens of thousands of new Landcare tree plantings in southwest Victoria’s Otway Ranges.

MEDIA CONTACT: Noel Murphy, Villawood PR & communications: 0417 365 379 E: noel.murphy@villawoodproperties.com