Town Flexes Its Muscles

Newcastle Herald

Saturday November 25, 2006

By ALYSSON WATSON

COUNTRY living is possible without the budget required for an acreage, especially in go-ahead Muswellbrook.

With a population tipped to increase by 35 per cent over the next five years, Muswellbrook is attracting professionals and retirees, and keeping its young people, according to LJ Hooker Muswellbrook principal Phil Lawler.

Investors are interested, too, and are still getting returns on residential property of 6 per cent, which is double what most other investors are getting.

Property values had doubled on some properties in the past four years, and even trebled on properties at the lower end, Mr Lawler said.

But despite the growth in mining and power generation industries and their spin-offs, Muswellbrook retains its country feel, and even lots in the town's newest residential subdivisions have rural views.

Mr Lawler said the buy-in price in developer Monarch's Eastbrook Links South Muswellbrook estate was $110,000, with the most expensive blocks still only priced at $130,000.

Sizes range from 650 square metres to 1000 square metres, and buyers are constructing houses for between $220,000 and $320,000.

In addition, new estates in North Muswellbrook will ensure an adequate land supply in the town for at least 10 years.

Mr Lawler said another development in the wind was a serviced estate of rural/residential blocks of between 4000 square metres and a hectare that could be priced from between $150,000 and $200,000.

Adjacent to the Eastbrook Links estate and close to the newly constructed South Muswellbrook shopping centre, they would all enjoy rural views, Mr Lawler said.

The rural aspect is particularly appealing to older buyers fleeing the Central Coast and western parts of Sydney for a quieter retirement.

"The pace of life is just so different here, yet we have all the modern conveniences, like hospitals, and recreational facilities, like golf and fishing on Lake Glenbawn, that they want," Mr Lawler said.

"And it's three hours from Sydney so they can still visit their families."